Processing Your Payment

Please do not leave this page until complete. This can take a few moments.

Poll results

Maine businesses need employees. Maine prison inmates need to become employees.

Those are twin challenges the state's Department of Labor and Department of Corrections have been teaming up to address. The agencies have recently held seminars showing employers how formerly incarcerated Mainers can bolster the workforce.

Last year, the Maine Lobster Dealers' Association began working with the Corrections Department to identify job recruits. Maine's hospitality industry has also tapped into the potential labor pool.

Of course, work-release partnerships and other vocational programs for inmates aren't new. But the initiatives are receiving new attention, as the labor crunch deepens. Meanwhile, Maine’s prison system releases approximately 1,200 men and women a year — roughly 100 a month.

Has your business hired Mainers who have been incarcerated? Or would you?
Yes, we have, and it's been a good experience. (26%, 12 VOTES)
Yes, we have, but we probably wouldn't hire from this labor pool again. (7%, 3 VOTES)
No, we haven't, but we're very open to hiring people with prison records. (20%, 9 VOTES)
No, we haven't, and don't feel this is the right pool of workers for us. (48%, 22 VOTES)
Poll Description

Maine businesses need employees. Maine prison inmates need to become employees.

Those are twin challenges the state's Department of Labor and Department of Corrections have been teaming up to address. The agencies have recently held seminars showing employers how formerly incarcerated Mainers can bolster the workforce.

Last year, the Maine Lobster Dealers' Association began working with the Corrections Department to identify job recruits. Maine's hospitality industry has also tapped into the potential labor pool.

Of course, work-release partnerships and other vocational programs for inmates aren't new. But the initiatives are receiving new attention, as the labor crunch deepens. Meanwhile, Maine’s prison system releases approximately 1,200 men and women a year — roughly 100 a month.

  • 46 Votes
  • 3 Comments
View recent polls

Sign up for Enews

3 Comments

  • October 17, 2019
    Yes we would hire from the corrections department, but I am so tired of hearing from the "not so silent Majority" about how we are giving away jobs to foreign students. We are hiring them because they are coming and applying for jobs. Jobs that would otherwise go unfilled. We pay them the same wages that we pay the Americans they are working along side of (not better or worse). We hire them because they are willing to work their agreed upon and assigned shifts rather than dictate to their employer what shifts they will and will not work.
  • October 17, 2019
    Shameful that so many who answered this poll voted in rejection. Wish I knew who these folks were so i would never provide to them any of my business.
  • October 16, 2019
    Mainers first, even prisoners, should take precedence with support for starting over with housing, jobs, education, etc. I am sure I speak for a large silent majority in the state that is sick and tired of seeing non-Mainers/Americans treated far better than our own.