Debt to society can be a long-term payment plan

People with convictions and those who have spent time in jail find barriers to moving on with their lives — in both employment and further education

Damien Quinn, Galway Rural Development, has set up an organisation to help ex prisoners get employment; having spent time in prison, he set up Speire Nua, which is the Irish for new horizon, which attempts to ease the path of those who have paid their debt to society and are now starting anew. Picture: Ray Ryan

When Damien Quinn came out of prison he thought he was quits with society; he had done wrong and paid his debt. 

What he didn’t realise then was that society wasn’t done with him. His debt had not been paid. 

He would be expected to keep paying, long into the future, as if the idea of a second chance was one which society had yet to get its head around.

“I naively believed that my punishment was over but really it was only beginning,” he says.

Quinn was to discover that ex-prisoners are left with a stain which is difficult to remove. 

In a whole host of ways, they are faced with challenges that have nothing to do with how they had transgressed to a point where they were imprisoned. 

Large parts of society continue to regard ex-prisoners with suspicion, particularly but not exclusively in areas like employment.

“I had been under the assumption that I would be able to move on and get on with my life,” Quinn says. 

“But certainly early on nobody was willing to give me a chance.”

Everything you apply for, whether it be a job, or a voluntary position or insurance for a car or to start a business, it comes up and it can often keep you locked out of opportunity.

Quinn’s experience is not unique. Neither is it confined to those who have spent time in prison. 

Anybody who has a criminal conviction — even for a relatively innocuous offence — can face barriers to getting on with their lives.

Recently, the Irish Penal Reform Trust (IPRT) published detailed research on employer attitudes to people with convictions (PWC). 

A report entitled ‘The Secondary Punishment’, conducted by academics from Maynooth University, included a survey of employers which found that nearly nine in 10 would consider hiring PWC.

However, that positive instinct was clouded by a number of barriers that still exist when it comes to a final decision on hiring.

Among the main findings of the report were:

• Perception of risk without any evidence base underpinned employer concerns about hiring PWC. These concerns included, but were not limited to, safeguarding, reputational damage, reoffending, personality, qualifications, job performance, and lack of support;
• Half of those surveyed do not have specific policies or practices that require disclosure of criminal convictions;
• Persistent barriers to employment for PWC include stigma and a lack of transparency in hiring processes;
• The research also highlighted the imperative of “shifting mindsets” from moral censure to inclusive policies and practices and the need or clear communication and messaging.

IPRT executive director Saoirse Brady says there is an assumption that when somebody leaves prison or finishes community service the punishment is over.

“But we know people continue to face ‘secondary punishment’ as their conviction will follow them for years — even decades — and intrude on many aspects of their lives,” she says.

“We know these individuals have skills, experience, and qualities that would benefit the workplaces, but we also know from our work they are all too often overlooked, despite making up a substantial part of the workforce.”

Perceptions do play a huge role in attitudes towards PWC, the study, conducted by Dr Joe Gerrihy and Dr Ciara Bracken Roche from Maynooth, shows.

“Many people, including employers, think of the most serious offences and extensive prison experiences when the issue of criminal convictions is raised,” they report. 

“However, of the many minor offences that come before the first level of the judiciary in the District Court, relatively few go on to serve a custodial sentence.”

For instance, of the 338,823 cases that came before the district court in 2022, a total of 3,796, just over 1%, resulted in a custodial sentence. Over half of those cases, 181,969, related to traffic offences.

“Thus,” the authors write, “high case numbers produce a vast number of individuals with a conviction, which means a criminal record, but most are for less serious offences.”

Of the 338,823 cases that came before the district court in 2022, a total of 3,796, just over 1%, resulted in a custodial sentence. Over half of those cases, 181,969, related to traffic offences. File picture: iStock

Then there are the more serious which do result in imprisonment. 

Damien Quinn makes no bones about his past. Like many who end up in crime, his youth was “troubled” by his own account. 

During his teenage years, he and a younger brother lived alone and he drifted into crime to a point where he was eventually caught with a kilo of cannabis, for which he received a three-year prison sentence.

“I wouldn’t excuse my behaviour,” he says. “I deserved to go to prison and I took the punishment on the chin. But it’s what happened after that came as a bit of a shock. 

“Very often when you’re going for a job or applying to college or whatever, the conversation focuses on what you did wrong rather than what you can bring to a company or organisation.

“People like me know we have skills but then we have to disclose our past to people we don’t even know.”

From the employer point of view, some businesses, particularly small to medium size, are risk-averse and would give a job to somebody they see as not having baggage.

When he came out of prison in 2009, Quinn was eager to restart his life. He applied for college but got turned down, he believes, because of his background.

“I applied for jobs, loads of rejections,” he says. “I was looking for work every day, spending all my job seeker’s allowance just looking for a job.

“I left the country for a while, resigned to the fact that nobody was going to give me a job, and then I finally got accepted for a college course and that became my focus. 

“It was about second-chance education. I got that through a friend after putting in two very hard years trying to get going.”

Today, he works in education in the community sector with Galway Rural Development, in which much of his work involves attempting to improve lives for people on the outer rims of society. 

His team leader Anne Cassidy says when she first learned of his past it wasn’t really with trepidation.

“He had it on his CV that he had done some of his education in Castlerea prison,” she says. 

“I googled him but it wasn’t really with trepidation. Yes, there is always a question in situations like this but when I looked at my first reaction and then thought we’re working with people on the margins.”

“If we’re not going to give somebody a chance, what are we doing here?”

When Damien Quinn came out of prison in 2009, Quinn was eager to restart his life. He applied for college but got turned down, he believes, because of his background. Picture: Ray Ryan

People who have gone through the system, Cassidy points out, can bring qualities like resilience and empathy to a job. 

“Those are not just skills for our kind of work. There are a lot of fields where they could end up being a positive.

“These convictions follow some people around for years. I’m not downplaying the seriousness of what some people get involved in, but it’s very easy for people who haven’t ended up in trouble thinking that it would never happen to them. 

“There are a lot of people out there and it’s a question of only for the grace of God. We’ve all done stuff when we were young but it doesn’t follow you around. 

“People who end up in that situation are sometimes not allowed to grow out of it.” 

Imagine going for a job and being asked ‘tell me what you were like when you were 19?’.

Kara McGann, head of social policy in the employers’ body, Ibec, welcomed the new research. She says it chimes with certain feedback from employers.

“I think what we hear from employers in terms of employing people with convictions is that it’s not a hard no, more a qualified yes. 

“Most are open to it but they are unsure how best to go about it, what can they ask, what they need to know,” says Ms McGann. 

“But they also fear of adding to any problems of people who may have been through a difficult time and they (employers) don’t know where to turn to to ask.”

Similar problems, have, she says, arisen in areas like disability and mental health. 

Organisations such as Open Doors, which provides opportunities for work and training for some marginalised members of society now have pathways for both employers and potential employees to negotiate these kind of issues.

“We need that same kind of support for employing people with criminal convictions because once employers are confident it is better for all concerned,” Kara McGann says. 

Damien Quinn has set up an organisation to ease the path of those who have paid their debt to society and are now starting anew.

A new initiative to launch an “employers toolkit” in this respect is being worked on by Open Doors and is expected to launch in the coming months.

For Damien Quinn, grabbing his well-earned second chance hasn’t been enough for him. 

His experience prompted him to attempt to ease the path for those who would come after him. 

He set up an organisation, Speire Nua, which is the Irish for new horizon, which attempts to ease the path of those who have paid their debt to society and are now starting anew.

The organisation is effectively a service and support body for people in that situation, showing where there are learning and employment opportunities and how to go about making the most of leaving the past in the past.

“I was 10 years trying to get a break in my area of interest,” Quinn says. “That’s why I set up Speire Nua and we developed this new model on what is the right way of going about things today. 

“Everybody deserves a second chance.”