Brook Linton, a TRP Certified Deconstruction Contractor, Wins Again

MUNCIE -- The city's Weed and Seed program is putting together a list of "offender-friendly employers."

Maj. Doug Rick from the Salvation Army Muncie said during a prisoner-re-entry conference on Tuesday that he was helping Weed and Seed coordinator Greg Maynard and others compile the list.

The biggest problem facing the 300 or so people who return to Muncie from state prison every year is finding employment, parole and probation officers said.

Cynthia Sawyer, who spent time in prison for cocaine dealing, found a job with city deconstruction contractor Brook Linton after being rejected by 15 other employers.

"I feel like a part of society now, not a menace to society," she said. "We need more people like Brook who will give us a chance."

Linton dismantles abandoned houses and re-uses the materials to build furniture and other products. He has trained 34 ex-offenders in basic carpentry and employs eight of them.

"They're the only people I want to work with," said Linton, a Ball State University graduate who became familiar with offenders while supervising jail work-release employees at a cabinet manufacturing plant a decade ago.

"They're just regular people," he said. "They have a love for life and hope to do better." Just like regular people, he added, there are "good and bad" ex-offenders.

The list of local "offender-friendly employers" includes a small-box discount retailer and a farm and home store.

Bruce Vander Sanden, an Iowa correctional consultant sent to Muncie by the U.S. Department of Justice, tries to convince companies to hire ex-offenders by saying, "If you really want to punish them, hire them and make them become taxpayers." He calls companies whose policies prohibit hiring ex-offenders "pro-crime," because ex-cons without jobs are much more likely to re-offend.

Indiana prisons train prisoners to become food handlers, fork-lift operators, woodworkers and other workers, though funding for prison job training is being cut back, parole and probation officers said.

Alvin Atkinson, another DOJ consultant sent here from Winston-Salem State University, calls the employment of ex-offenders by the city's deconstruction contractor a model that could be replicated by other cities.

The project is a collaborative effort between the deconstruction contractor, the city of Muncie, Ivy Tech Community College, Weed and Seed, Delaware County Community Corrections and WorkOne.

"This can be a catalyst," Vander Sanden said. "It can send a message. It can have a great impact on the community and on the environment."

Weed and Seed is a DOJ-funded strategy to weed out drugs and violent criminals in inner-city neighborhoods that are then seeded with social services.

Contact reporter Seth Slabaugh at 213-5834.