Reintegration for Ex-Offender – Focusing on Employment Barriers and Policy in Hong Kong

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- Reality factor

To help them to solve the financial problem and accommodation problem, Social Welfare Department provides the hostel and financial assistance to ex-offenders through NGO. There are 70 capacities in hostel which provided from NGO for ex-offenders to apply. Since the duration of applying CSSA is about two months, there is two-month short-term rental assistance for ex-offenders to rent the sleeping place. NGO will also provide some cash assistance about $50 per day to ex-offenders for their meal allowance before they got CSSA.

- Employer and public attitude and discrimination

To promote the anti-discrimination, Correctional Services Department has built the employer network pool. More than 240 employers joined the network (楊耀登, 2012). Correctional Services Department (2012) also organized job fair at Pik Uk Prison to provide job opportunities for all local offenders who would be released within 3 months.

There is also a Rehabilitation of Offenders Ordinance to help the rehabilitation of ex-offender. To apply this ordinance, the applicants must be a first time offender at the time of committing the crime. The punishment of the crime did not exceed a fine of HK$10,000 or a prison term of not more than 3 months. Also, the person does not commit a crime in a period of three years after the sentence.

Evaluation of existing policy and Recommendation

The existing policies or actions are useful to help ex-offenders getting employed. However, there are also some areas which need to be improved.

- Ex-offender characteristic and attitude

It is good to improve the education level and skill technique by organizing vocational training courses. However, the courses are for enrolment on a voluntary basis. It is better if there are assessment and testing before joining the training courses. Matching the ability and interest of offenders and the vocational training courses are very important. If the courses are only for enrolment on a voluntary basis and no assessment to check the ability and interest of offenders, the effect of the courses will be minimized. Therefore, setting the criteria for selection is necessary. Assessment of the working history and their interest before joining the particular training course is recommended.

Some NGOs provide some counseling sessions to ex-offender to improve their self esteem and their working belief and attitude. However, all of these should be done during the prison instead of after they discharged. It is because ex-offenders need time to improve. After ex-offenders discharged, they need to find a job as soon as possible. If we just improve their self esteem and working attitude after they discharged, they do not ready to find a job as soon as possible. They will be employed later. However, if we can have career counseling sessions during the prison, they will get ready to find a job immediately. Also, when ex-offenders discharged, they have to face different kinds of problems. For example, they have to face and solve financial problem, accommodation problem, and family problem and so on. Social workers need to deal with many problems they faced. Employment problem is just only one of the problems which have to be solved. It is better to prepare well before they discharged. It can help them to reintegrate in the society as soon as possible. Besides, NGOs provide the service as voluntary basis. Ex-offenders have freedom to come or not to come to get the services. Although it is important for them to improve self esteem and find a job, they may not come to get the service because of some personal reasons. Therefore, change programs, such as self-esteem program, and job readiness courses are more successful when they are organized in the prison.

- Reality factor

Although there is financial assistance provided by NGO, the amount of cash assistance is not enough. The cash allowance may just enough to buy food for their surviving. However, they have no extra money to buy shirt and mobile phone, cut hair, and also have no transportation fee for interview. All of these are important for them to get a job. It is recommended to provide more financial assistance to ex-offenders. For example, government can organize the scheme which provides the transportation fee. This scheme can be run by NGO. NGO can provide suitable allowance by monitoring the employment status of ex-offenders at the same time. It can minimize the administrative fee to run this scheme.

Accommodation issue is another problem and it will influence the ex-offenders not to get a job. However, the capacities of hostel are not enough. Also, the amount of short-term rental assistance for ex-offenders to rent the place is not enough. In Hong Kong, housing issue is a big social problem. The rental of housing is very high and the amount of the assistance is not enough to pay the rent. It is difficult for ex-offenders to find a sleeping place. Therefore, they cannot provide address to employers and affect the employability of them. To solve this problem, it is recommended to increase the capacities of hostel of ex-offenders. It can provide the stable environment to them to find a job and to integrate in the society. Second, the amount of the rental assistance must be increased. We can use the format of complete reimbursement to help ex-offender for their accommodation problem.

- Employer and public attitude and discrimination

Government has done a little in promotion of the anti-discrimination. It is recommended to organize large campaigns and activities to promote inclusiveness and acceptance of ex-offenders. Also, government can produce TV program and advertisement to let people know more about ex-offenders. It helps to promote coherent society.

Besides, government should increase the employer network. There are only about 240 employers joined the employer network. However, the employer network for employing ex-offenders is more successful in Singapore. There are more than 2,800 companies in job bank in Singapore Corporation of Rehabilitative Enterprises (Singapore Corporation of Rehabilitative Enterprises, 2011). To increase the employer network, government should do more promotion. It can improve the organization’s image by helping disadvantaged group such as ex-offender (Gill, 1997). Also, government may provide tax allowance to employers. Government provides the incentive to employers for employing persons with disabilities. In similar idea, government can also provide the incentive to employers for employing