Big U.S. Companies such as Google, Starbucks and over a dozen others have joined in President Obama's call to help ex-inmates to get jobs. The President's newest criminal justice reform launched on Monday is designed to help former felons face their most difficult challenge when they return home - to get a job.
Many reform advocates and watchers believe that this initiative of the President marks a significant shift in the approach of large corporations towards the subject of ex-inmates.
Among the large corporations involved in this project are Facebook, Pepsico, American Airlines, Uber, Coca-Cola, and The Hershey Company.
"It's huge," said Fred Patrick, director of the Vera Institute of Justice's Center on Sentencing and Corrections. "Some of these companies may have been quietly hiring formerly incarcerated individuals. But to be public about it? That's what's important," he added.
Such a move was already initiated in 2011 when the states of California, Michigan, New York and a number of other states attacked the problem by helping ex-inmates find jobs so that they won't end up back in prison.
"We had a $2 billion prison budget, and if you look at the costs saved by not having the system the size it was, we save a lot of money," said Patricia Caruso, Michigan's corrections commissioner from 2003 through 2010.
"If we spend some of that $2 billion on something else - like re-entry programs - and that results in success, that's a better approach," she added.
Lois Davis, a senior researcher at the Rand Corporation said that few companies have supported such initiatives in the past. With many of them pledging to help ex-inmates now represents "a sea of change" she said.
A White House statement assured that more of these programs will be introduced in the future. The statement also said that later this year, the government will announce "a second round of pledges, with a goal of mobilizing more companies and organizations."
