Restorative Justice within Homewood-Brushton

Crime Rates in Homewood-Brushton 

As we can see crime rates in Homewood-Brushton have been slowly increasing over the past few years. We do not know if these crimes are committed by persons living within Homewood-Brushton or those living outside of this neighborhood. This website is designed to help those who have a criminal record after incarceration.

Our Project:

This study explores the discrimination and obstacles that persons with criminals records face in seeking employment and higher education.  This discrimination has implications into how employers and academic institutions are biased against those that have been through the criminal justice system.   

We find that there are three avenues one can pursue after recieving a criminal record: Recidivism, Getting a Job, or Seeking Higher Education. Each of these comes with challenges.

 

Recidivism:

• Refers to a person’s relapse into criminal behavior, often after the person receives sanctions or undergoes intervention for a previous crime.
• One is likely to live a life of crime and be in and out of jail multiple times

 

 

Getting a Job:

• Many employers ask if you have been convicted of a crime on the application
• Many employers turn you down for employment based on your criminal record

• Ban the Box Campaign
  •  Pittsburgh has adopted Ban the Box ordiences on December 17, 2012
    • These two policies apply to vendors and contractors doing business with the city
      • These ordiences allow for the right to appeal denial of employment and bans the box on employment application

• The Ban the Box Pledge:

As an individual, I pledge…

To always welcome formerly incarcerated peoples into my community

To support changes in policies that discriminate against the formerly incarcerated

As an employer, I pledge…

To hire and support the formerly incarcerated

To support the elimination of any restrictions on participation that may exclude the formerly incarcerated

To encourage others to also institute fair hiring practices

• To learn more about the Ban the Box Campaign click here

 

 

 

Seeking Higher Education:

• Homewood-Brusthton does have a Community College of Allegheny County (CCAC) center
  • However, recently CCAC adopted a policy allowing the school to suspend, dismiss or deny admission to any applicant or student it determines could endanger the campus
    • The follwing article was done on the policy click here for more information
• Ex-Offenders also face some trouble, should they recieve admittance, with financial aid
  • While in a federal or state institution one can NOT recieve a Federal Pell Grant or Federal Student Loans
  • If you are in an insitution other than a federal or state institution you can NOT recieve Federal Student Loans, but one can recieve a Federal Pell Grant and can recieve a Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant and Federal Work Study, however both of these are unlikely as schools have limited amounts of FSEOG funds and it is difficult to perform an FWS job so you would likely not be awarded the funds
    • To find more information visit Federal Student Aid
• Ex-Offenders seeking to attend college must also have completed high school or have recieved their GED
  • The GED testing is $30 per test and can pose a financial burden with the cost of the test and study materials

Programs or Places for help in Pittsburgh for Ex-Offenders:

• Allegheny County Jail Re-Entry Program
• Lydia’s Place
• The Southwestern Pennsylvania Re-entry Coalition (SPARC)
• YMCA – Homewood-Brushton
• Community Empowerment Association

 

 

This Page Was Created By: Kaitlynne, Mary, Jen, Becca and Vineet