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Fair helps fathers know best
By Jeff Wilford
RACINE - Joseph Thomas has one year of a prison sentence down and two more to go. He has a 6-year-old daughter on the outside, back in Richland Center, who asks where Daddy is and when he's coming home.
Thomas, 28, worries about falling into the same pattern when he gets out of prison that put him there in the first place - drinking, smoking marijuana, hanging out with the wrong people. He worries about being a better father.
When Thomas walked into the gym at Racine Correctional Institution for the Fathers' Fair on Monday afternoon, one of his first stops was a table set up by Big Brothers and Big Sisters. They offer a mentoring program for children of inmates. Thomas signed up his
daughter.
Hundreds of prisoners walked through the gym, getting information on being better parents, getting jobs when they get out, eating right, staying healthy and staying clean. More than 30 agencies had set up tables as part of the fourth annual Fathers' Fair.
The Fathers' Fair helps inmates connect with agencies that can help them or their families, while they're still behind bars or once they get out, organizer Barb Rasmussen said. About 485 prisoners visited the Fathers Fair last year, she said. This year's attendance should equal or exceed that.
The Mexican Consulate's Chicago office also had a table. It was their first year at the Fathers' Fair. They helped Mexican inmates, many of whom face deportation when their sentences are up, understand what to expect when they get out of prison.
One of the most popular exhibits was Job Service. There, inmates asked about how to get a job when they get out of prison. Most of them worried that their time behind bars would make getting a job difficult.
"What we tell them, because of the ex-felon stigma they're going to have ... employers might not want to hire them," said Orlando Ortiz, who works in Job Service's Department of Workforce Development in Milwaukee.
The key is to tell the truth, not hide their past and turn the positives into negatives, Ortiz said. Yes, they were convicted of a crime, but they are being rehabilitated. Yes, they spent time in prison, but they want to become taxpayers.
Thornon Talley, 24, of Madison, stopped to get information about finding a job when he gets out of prison in December. He has an associates degree in health management, a certificate in business management and a license to drive a forklift.
But he doesn't have any job leads, yet. He hopes to have some solid leads in hand when he is released.
Richard Klemp, 23, from Watertown, was scheduled to be released from prison next April, but that could be delayed because he was kicked out of one of his treatment groups. He wants to show the parole board a solid plan for finding work upon his release, in hopes his release won't be pushed back to 2006.
"Because right now, I have no resources on the outside, which really hurts me in the long run," Klemp said.
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