www.qns.com I LIC COURIER I MAY 2019 33
More than 50 formerly incarcerated men took part in a necktie workshop at The Fortune Society, to learn a basic skill for the job hint.
Feature
BY BILL PARRY
For nearly 50 years, The Fortune Soci-ety
in Queens has been paving the way
for formerly incarcerated people to face
the challenges and harmful stigmas that
prevent them from successfully reentering society.
One of the barriers they face is finding sustainable
employment, so the Long Island City-based nonprofit
gathered more than 50 of them for a crash course
on how to tie a necktie, a vital skill for finding jobs
and becoming leaders in their community.
“Gaining employment is one of the most important
steps of successful reentry,” The Fortune Society
Vice President Andre Ward said. “That is why at The
Fortune Society, we do our best to equip our clients
with the skills and tools that they need to land a job,
which includes, at the most basic level, learning how
to tie a necktie.”
Windsors, bow ties, and four-in-hands were all on
the agenda at the special workshop event for the
organization’s clients who come home from prison
without basic life skills that most people take for
granted, Ward, who heads Fortune’s Education and
Employment Services, explained. Other life skills
that most people take for granted include using a
computer or a smartphone.
“I can tell you what it meant for me when I came
home from prison and tied my first tie,” The Fortune
Society Executive Vice President Stanley Richards
said. “It meant there was an acknowledgment of my
humanity and my participation in society.”
Richards was honored at the White House as a
Champion of Change in 2014 after his life’s journey
began on the mean streets of the Bronx, where
he “ran with a dangerous crowd” before he was
convicted of armed robbery and sentenced to up to
nine years in prison.
In prison, Richards began to salvage his life through
education, earning a GED, and when he was released
, after serving 4 ½ years, he went on to graduate from
college. In 1991, Richards was hired by The Fortune
Society as a counselor working his way up to executive.
Former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder hosted
the White House ceremony honoring Richards and
16 other American heroes that day and the East
Elmhurst native pointed out that 95 percent of all
incarcerated people will be released at some point.
“And just as we expect everyone who commits a
crime to serve their time and pay their societal debts,
we also expect them to remain sober and crime-free
upon their release,” Holder said. “We expect them to
get jobs and find housing and we expect them to be-come
productive taxpayers and law-abiding members
of society. Unfortunately, these expectations are not
always met. Shockingly high recidivism rates persist
across the country.”
Justice Department statistics at the time showed
that nearly 68 percent of released prisoners return
within three years and nearly 77 percent are back
after five years.
“Everyone looks at those numbers,” Richards said
after the ceremony. “Me, I look at the nearly 25 per-cent
of the people that don’t go back to prison and
we should focus on that element of success. Mass
incarceration doesn’t build better communities or
better families. Education builds better people to the
tools they can use upon their release.”
Even something that most people take for granted,
like tying a necktie.
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