ODA Blog - Perspective

When news broke on March 13th that Maryland was going into full shutdown mode, you could feel the air go out of our ex-offender demonstration project funded by the Governor of Maryland.  Seriously?  Really?  After a year of planning and hard work, it was all going to go up in smoke because of a pandemic?  No way!  We persevered!  (The Governor will be very proud.)

While America spent the past summer and early fall obsessing over emails and tweets, Open Door America kept its eye on the ball.

With an estimated 31 percent of U.S. adults now saddled with a criminal record -- yes, you read that right -- the grim job prospects of our exploding ex-offender population represent the least-understood national security threat awaiting the next President and Congress.

For the past five years, ODA has made the issue of ex-offender employment its top priority.  That's because no single group of Americans will have a greater impact on the nation's future in the coming decades.  Put every ex-offender to work in a living-wage job and you decrease the number of people living in poverty by 20 percent.  On the other hand, do nothing to reduce the nation's 50 percent recidivism rate and the Gross Domestic Product will continue to lose $65 billion annually.