Reintegration of ex-offenders into society requires multi-faceted endeavors from providing basic job skills to strengthening communities to be less vulnerable to crime. High rate of re-offending among ex-offenders may be caused by individual problems of lack of job motivation and crime-prone attitudes and values as well as paucity of employment opportunities for them.
Employment is a critical stabilizing factor for ex-offenders and a better solution to promote economic stability of released prisoners is necessary. The purpose of this study is to examine measures to promote ex-offenders’ employment opportunities in the field of social enterprises - a newly developed model of economic entity located in the middle of for-profit entrepreneurship and social entrepreneurship.
Social enterprises can take various kinds of forms and the law regulating social enterprises prescribes the identity of social enterprise as the legal entity engaging in profit-making by providing goods and services and advancing the living quality of community by providing social services or jobs for the socially disadvantaged people. The accreditation of social enterprise by the Ministry of Employment and Labor should meet specific requirements, such as the proportion of employees from socially disadvantaged class and the nature of social services for social purposes. The problems in the law, however, lie in the classification of the socially disadvantaged whether they fall in job provision or social service provision categories. It is also suggested that the scope of social enterprise be extended to social enterprises soley designed for the purpose of providing professional services, such as consulting, management and legal assistance for other social enterprises. Also government relief to social enterprises should be limited to only social enterprises with specific purposes and instead such assistance as management consulting, education and training, tax benefits and others should be provided.
The Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Korea has been putting efforts in helping released prisoners for the successful reintegration into community by providing housing and employment assistance in close cooperation with the Ministry of Employment and Labor. Several seemingly successful programs have been adopted. First vocational training programs were designed to aim at the successful employment in the job market after release and various certification programs and job search programs were provided in advance. Second, the “employment success package” program initiated by the Ministry of Employment and Labor began to apply to offenders in 2011 and a systematic employment assistance for ex-offenders took effect. Housing assistance for ex-offenders is provided by the Korea Rehabilitation Agency under the auspices of the Ministry of Justice and a total of 1,118 released prisoners became beneficiaries of the program since its inception in 2006.
Results from a survey with prison inmates revealed the necessity for ameliorating negative stereotypes towards ex-criminals, being a crucial obstacle for them to find jobs or start a new business after release. Employment policies and programs need to be based on their needs and job skills, increasing the success rate of the employment and lessening re-offending rate.
A transitional employment assistance program was suggested to help ex-offenders become more responsible to their work by providing a transitional stage of adaptation to job situations. Employment network services and vocational education and training programs designed specifically for ex-offenders are necessary for their successful reintegration into job market in the community.
In order to facilitate societal and economic situations for furthering the establishment of social enterprises for ex-offenders, this study suggests the institutionalization of new policies and programs of assisting sustainable development of social enterprises by providing management consultation and legal assistance for social entrepreneurs. It is also suggested that a private rehabilitation foundation be established so as to fund prospective social enterprises employing ex-offenders and help them get on the track of profit-making enough to achieve social purposes.
To achieve this purpose, we suggest the formation of social enterprise alliance that can help social enterprises with the tools and resources they need to succeed, and work on building an optimal environment in which they can thrive. Since social enterprises for ex-offenders take the form of entrepreneurship in consideration of the relationship with the community, the appropriate models of social enterprises for ex-offenders should help facilitate involvement of community members, government agencies, social enterprises and ex-offenders themselves.