October 15, 2025 • 25 mins
The Florida Foundation for Correctional Excellence is providing support to the vision of DOC Secretary Ricky Dixon and FFCE's Executive Director, Erica Averion, spent some time with Preston to share the why and the how.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:06):
Welcome friends, Third Hour ruminators, Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls,
males and females only. It is the third Hour Wednesday
here on the Morning Show with Preston Scott Show five
four hundred and seventy two. But who's counting. That's Jose
over there in Studio one A. I'm here in Studio
(00:26):
one B, and I am joined by a friend, a friend,
a colleague, and someone that I worked with for a
couple of years with the Florida Foundation for Correctional Excellence.
She's the executive director, Erica Averian.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Erica, Hi, Hi, good Mornie. Are you I'm well, I'm well,
happy to be here. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
When you know, it was funny because I've had the
Secretary of Corrections on a few times. You know that
I've had Joe Winkler, the Assistant Secretary for Community Corrections.
We've talked about on this program quite a bit in
recent years, the correctional system and that it's this kind
of epiphany that's happened inside the industry where they're coming
(01:07):
to grips with the fact that it's not prisons. Prisons
is a function that they have to perform incarcerating people
that the criminal justice system says needs need to be incarcerated,
but corrections really implies the real mission and it's helping
prepare men and women to be part of society. Having
(01:30):
said that, FFCEE the Florida Foundation for Correctional Excellence, before
we get into what its role is and making sure
that people understand it clearly, how did you get to
this because this is a calling and I'd love for
people to get a little snapshot of your backstory.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
Sure, thank you so much, Preston. I appreciate that. So,
Florida Foundation for Correctional Excellence in this conversation for short,
we'll reference it as FFSE. Quite a bit was really
born back into SO. We were created to be the
direct support organization for the Florida Department of Corrections, the
largest state agency here in Florida. And how I personally
(02:09):
gravitated to this work was I was actually a volunteer
with the Florida Department of Corrections and at the time,
under the leadership of Secretary Inch and Deputy Secretary Dixon,
now our amazing secretary, they saw something in me as
a contributor to the agency who was seeing the organization
as a correctional system the Department of Corrections, not the
(02:33):
Department of Prisons, and making prison a place of transformation
by bringing the outside world in and sort of being
an untraditional kind of uncanny volunteer. And the backside of
that story of how to becoming a volunteer is I
started my career in child welfare with DCF twenty five
years ago this year, straight out of college. And I
(02:57):
was green and ambitious and woke up every day excited
to give everything I had to that job. I was
in my early twenties, staying up until two o'clock in
the morning reading judicial reviews, sitting in the back of courtrooms.
I was writing along with case managers. I wanted to
understand sort of the why not the what has happened?
(03:19):
Like the what in the heck is wrong with these
people who have lost their child, but what has happened
in their lives to get them here to this point
to have lost their child? And I had a colleague
across the hall from me that had a sign above
her desk we worked in the substance abusewing that said,
help me remember for every client I see my quick
(03:43):
twist of fate could be me. And it always sort
of pierced me, but not so much until it became me.
So four years into that work, my dad caught a
ten year sentence and I got a front row seat personally,
not just for professionally, and I saw things that I
couldn't unsee and heard things I couldn't unhear. And my
(04:05):
dad actually ended up being an individual who made prison
a place of transformation. He took inside out dad, he
took fatherhood. He had difficult conversations, he worked to make amends.
He actually got his ged and studied for the very
first time, was given the opportunity to get an education
in his fifties. He was raised by his grandmother. He
(04:29):
grew up just working with his hands. I'm a daughter
of a roofer. I mean, my dad was buying a
car for five thousand and selling it at the front
yard for six sort of a natural born hustler. That
is not the only thing he was selling. And so
I got a perspective to this world that really shaped
my viewpoint of how I wanted to serve in social
(04:50):
impact and social responsibility. And so that is why I
gravitated to the world of serving in corrections.
Speaker 1 (04:57):
Erica very in my guests, She'll be with me for
most of the hour, and we're going to talk about
the work of FFCEE. We're going to also talk about
the nexus of where many of you listening might find
yourself being part of this effort. We'll explain all of
that and unpack all that here on the Morning Show
with Preston Scott. We were just talking in the break.
(05:18):
You know, friends, as you've listened to me talk about this,
I've gone through my own personal evolution. I've got two
brothers that were in law enforcement, and so I saw
the tough on crime perspective of things and have always
held that view. And then I came across years ago
the pragmatic view up the practical view. And it's one
of the very rare issues in our culture today that
(05:40):
Republicans and Democrats, both sides of the owl, can actually
find a lot of ground to work on together because
men and women are getting out. Erica, quantify that statement
for us a little bit in terms of the numbers.
Speaker 2 (05:56):
Yeah, so here in Florida, we are releasing upwards of
around twenty twenty five thousand plus individuals a year across
the state that have been incarcerated behind the fence. We
also are supervising on probation or parole one hundred and
forty five thousand plus, and then that number continues to rise.
(06:18):
When we look at the entire population of the people
in Florida who have a criminal record, we're looking at
around four million plus. So that is the footprint in
its entirety of justice impacted individuals with a criminal record,
and in our system. Annually we are releasing upwards of
twenty five thousand people.
Speaker 1 (06:37):
And it doesn't necessarily mean that twenty five thousand are
coming off of probation are not going to need continued assistance,
right exactly. So how does ffce come into the picture here?
What was it that caused either the governor or the
secretary to come to the place of saying we need
(06:58):
some help.
Speaker 2 (06:59):
Sure, So FFCEE was created with a simple goal. It
was to turn the opportunity of that second chance, that
third chance, that chance that someone was pursuing into a
real pathway of readiness. Right, these individuals, like you said,
both sides of the aisle, both sides of opinions. Whether
(07:20):
you like it or not, the data is clear, we
are releasing them and so at the end of the day,
they are coming back into our communities. And so we
were created under the mission and the direction to prepare
those individuals as best we can with an actual training
and skill that we can place them into a job.
Speaker 1 (07:39):
Right.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
This makes our community safer, This restores families, This creates
economic mobility, and it really meets the need of our workforce.
So we have leaders across the states in this country
who are really centered around evidence based training, or they're
centered around mental health. You know, our governor back in
twenty twenty and still today is focused on you know,
workforce here in Florida. Sure, and we saw an opportunity
(08:03):
at Florida Department of Corrections to really take an untapped
talent force right, individuals who want to transform, who are
being rehabilitated, who want it, who need it. We're talking
about individuals who are on a pathway to betterment after
their worst day and their worst mistake. We're talking about
people who maybe they're not seeking their second chance, maybe
(08:25):
they never had a first chance, maybe the opportunity they
can't read, they don't have that basic you know, when
you know better, you do better. Right, And so we
were created to take that particular population and subset of
people and really prepare them with a strong opportunity to
go back into our communities in Florida meaningfully occupied with
(08:46):
the job and employment and a skill and trade that
can be a gainful pathway to really really transform their lives.
Speaker 1 (08:56):
Real short version answer to this question is this, I've
I view this right now as one of the best
job markets in years for returning citizens.
Speaker 2 (09:06):
Is at fair Absolutely absolutely. I saw something on Instagram
a couple of days ago that said, you know, the
wealthiest guy in your neighborhood's not going to be the
tech guy. It's going to be the welder. It's going
to be the plumber with six trucks. It's going to
be the handyman. It's going to be the small appliants repair,
It's going to be the trades. And that is what
we are training these individuals in.
Speaker 1 (09:25):
I was not aware until I went through what's called
a re entry simulation, how difficult it can be, no
matter how focused, no matter how intentional you want to
be at being out and making your way and becoming
successful Erica, the hurdles can be not just difficult, they
(09:49):
can be defeating, overwhelming. When I went through that simulation,
I literally said, put me back in jail. Yep. And fortunately,
in one way, shape or form, that's what a lot
of these men and women end up doing because the
challenges are so great. Explain the challenges and what is
being done to address them.
Speaker 2 (10:11):
Yes, so, one of my colleagues calls them constant fireballs, right,
the headwinds that come at you when you are releasing.
So when you look at an individual who has been
in the care and custody of the Florida Department of
Corrections for really any length of time, we do have,
you know, short sentence individuals. But for the most part,
we're talking about state prisons. We're talking about lengthy sentences here.
(10:32):
We're talking about people who are, you know, going through
a transition of getting back out into a world that
they probably did not come from. Right, these for the
majority of the people, this is kind of pre COVID.
We're going to talk about kind of the landscape around
workforce technology as we've socially evolved in a culture, just
in the past five years. Let's look at the landscape
(10:54):
of technology. We're talking about accessibility, transportation, infrastructure, the growth
of our state. Right just from a very high level,
just think about the basic needs we're going to talk
about transportation, We're going to talk about housing, to talk
about a job, We're going to talk about ID readiness.
I mean, these individuals, for the most part, without the
(11:15):
support of a family, really leave with, you know, fifty
dollars and a bus ticket and a readiness plan that
the amazing brave souls at the Florida Department of Corrections
work tiresly to create as strong and best as they can.
But it's best day with everything firing on all cylinders,
even if there's the greatest referral and the tightest paperwork
(11:36):
around ID readiness and the DMV and social Security and
the clerk a court and the health department and career source.
Speaker 1 (11:41):
And just think about that list she's going through right now, friends,
And that's what these men and women are dealing.
Speaker 2 (11:49):
With, Yes, from a bus ticket to ID readiness, to
interviews with employers that are there and second chance friendly. Right,
I mean, this isn't just any job to somebody who
will hire someone with the criminal record. And so these
barriers start to stack up, even on its best day,
even with everything firing, even with the strongest plan, right,
(12:10):
these headwinds, these fireballs start to come and so we
work with the Florida Department of Corrections to prepare these
people the best that we can, and then they may
have supervision. They may be at a transitional house that
has a great solid foundation, maybe a faith based halfway house.
It may be a recovery house. It may have its
own set of rules, and then those rules have to
(12:31):
coincide with the rules of their supervision, right their probation
and parole, and then that's another set of guardrails and structure.
And so they're navigating this re entry with a lot
of different things, and I think the best way that
I can kind of summarize this is we can talk
all day about what's coming at them and sort of
what we're doing to help them navigate it, with our
(12:53):
partnerships with community resources, with providers, with the referral network,
with our release officers, creating the strongest readiness plan, with
all the credentials, with all the certificates, with all the referrals,
with all the things. Is that about five years ago,
I was at a facility visiting with the board members
of Florida Foundation for Correctional Excellence, and this brave student
(13:15):
in a carpentry class stood up and He thanked us
for coming, and he said, I appreciate you coming to
our neighborhood, in our community to see what we're doing
every day. I am not going to pretend that I
have anything meaningful to contribute to the conversation of why
you're here. I heard something about re entry and recidivism,
and I don't have the answers. This is my second
time here, he said, bet I'll tell you this. I
(13:36):
didn't need work boots, I had brand new ones. I
didn't need a bus ticket, I didn't need food, and
I didn't even need a job. I needed one person
I could call, he said. I was at the bus
stop after going to the DNB for the third time
with everything I thought I needed, and I lost my
pool and made a split second mistake that got me
(13:57):
back here. And I'll never forget that, because when we
talk about what are the needs of these individuals, this
person said I needed one person I could call in
that moment, right, What is that one line? What is
that lifeline are So we're building systems around our faith communities,
our nonprofits. We're building that warmer handoff from pre release.
Speaker 1 (14:19):
To post release, trying to find that one person.
Speaker 2 (14:21):
Trying to find that one person.
Speaker 1 (14:24):
That each inmate knows where to go when they are
striking out.
Speaker 2 (14:30):
Yes, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (14:32):
It tied in friends to a discussion I had last
month with Joe Winkler. You might recall the Mobile re
Entry Unit. These are things that FFCE is helping provide
corrections to make it easier for men and women to
be successful. We're going to talk more about all that
next here on the Morning Show with Preston Scott. I
(14:55):
warned her Erica Varian is with me Florida Foundation for
Correctional Excellence. She is the executive director. And as I
told a buddy of mine, sal Newsoh, he and I
had lunch last week and we got to talking about
FFCE and if there's a better person suited for this
(15:16):
work and this job, I don't know who that person
could possibly be. Eric is incredibly gifted. She's very very bright,
intuitive and has a heart. And I think that this
job working in this world and in this realm, I
don't think it's a job, it's a calling. Would you
agree with that? Summery?
Speaker 2 (15:36):
Oh for sure. I mean maybe even a conviction, maybe
even a nagging and gnawing that won't let up.
Speaker 1 (15:41):
Right, right, and you've explained a little bit why one
of the things that I've tried to do and maybe
successfully in some ways and maybe not so very successfully,
and you can help. I want this to transmit now
to our listeners. There are people out there right now
that own businesses. There are people that man businesses. There
are people that just are you know, just folks that
(16:03):
are out there retired and they're curious as to this
way of approaching corrections that's a little bit different. What
should people know about what FFCE has done, the types
of relationships Already you've linked up with what we're doing.
Speaker 2 (16:18):
Sure, so, as I mentioned earlier, just to recap for
folks who just might be dialing in, our real goal
and mission is to bridge the gap between correctional excellence
and employment, so connecting skills that people are getting behind
the fence to actual real labor market needs and jobs.
So I think what I want to start by sharing
is that what people may not know, which is that
(16:41):
our compounds are turning into campuses for the majority of
our facilities, fifty plus facilities across the entire state of Florida.
If you walk on to one of our yards and
compounds from centergate forward. You are going to see everything
from HVAC to carpentry, to electrical to irrigation, to digital design,
to literacy to basic education, all the way up to
(17:04):
almost one hundred plus different crafts in career clusters and
focuses that directly aligned with a need in our workforce
and our labor market. And so what we've done is
we've looked at labor markets that are signaling the biggest need. Okay,
so we're looking at construction.
Speaker 1 (17:22):
That perfect storm of jobs we talked about it.
Speaker 2 (17:24):
Yes, we're looking at manufacturing. And what we've tried to
do at FFC is to build relationships with the small
modmon pops all the way to the big employers that
are statewide in those sectors to create pipelines. I mean,
this is really sophisticated matchmaking here. We're looking at our assets.
We're unique because we're on both sides of the pipeline.
We have the talent that's skilled and trained. And so
(17:48):
what we've done is we built relationships with over one
hundred plus employer partners across the state in all four regions,
and we're bringing them in to understand that footprint of
education and real industry excellence. If you ask me, I
mean you're looking at a facility that really rivals a
technical college, right, and if you look at a manufacturing
(18:09):
and logistics and supply chain course and then a coding
lab and then a heavy equipment operator lab. And so
I'll give just one example. A few years back, the
labor market here in Florida was signaling that they were
hiring women in the construction industry at unprecedented rates. I
mean you look at sort of the interest of women
wanting to get into that field. I mean, we think
(18:29):
that they may want to learn the vocation or the
credential of cosmotology. But maybe that's.
Speaker 1 (18:35):
Okay, I watch HGTV and Magnolia, I know better.
Speaker 2 (18:38):
Right, Okay. And so we had piloted a program and
the population and the students and learners had gravitated to
it in such a meaningful way. We saw potential and
opportunity there, and so we at FFSE really looked at
what would it what would it unfold and be if
we invested in a heavy equipment operator program where we
(18:59):
train these women and every single one of them was
work release eligible, meaning before they are released from prison,
they are out in the community, working for employers in
that field, and then continuing to supplement and compliment training
right that creates an even larger economic mobility around workforce
CDL SO class B, class A. I mean, I'm proud
(19:20):
to say that every single one of those women in
that initial cohort have gone to work release and also
continue not just employment in the field, but also training
that is advancing them in real, livable wage careers. These
are not just jobs. These are careers that are going
to help them stay on the patchory entry and not rectivate.
Speaker 1 (19:44):
Ericavarian with me final segment here, as we're talking about
the Florida Foundation for Correctional Excellence, I know you're all
about networking, partnering, finding those mom and pop businesses large
and small that want to link arms. Because we were
just talking in the break Erica. Having a job waiting
is everything. Yes to these men and women. Yes, What
(20:06):
should a business owner, a manager, somebody that's you've peaued
their curiosity would what should they know?
Speaker 2 (20:13):
Well, they should know that they have an invitation for
me to come into our campuses and our compounds and
look at the sophisticated level of industry credential and training
that we are doing that will meet the needs of
their employment. I mean, essentially, at the end of the day,
what we're doing at FCS, we're building these employment partner showcases.
These are not job fairs, these are not tours, these
(20:35):
are not resource fairs. These are an invitation for business owners,
HR managers, recruiters, middle management, hiring managers to come and
see the talent that they may not know exist in
the level in which it exists. And so we're hosting
these all across the state. Our next one coming up
is going to be on November fifth at Jefferson CI
(20:56):
so here in Region one. Yep, we have one coming
up into some in South Florida at Everglades re Entry
and they're going to be popping up all over the state.
So if you're interested in coming, please visit our website
FL correctionalexcellence dot com and on the homepage it'll take
you right to the upcoming ones where you can RSVP
and all the clearance will be done very easily through
(21:18):
one form. So again that's Flcorrectionalexcellence dot com. Or let's
say you can't make the date to come in and
see what I'm talking about, you can reach out to
us at any time. And what we do is we
essentially build a catered, surveyed, vetted list of job seekers
that would match the needs that you have as an employer.
(21:39):
And let's say you don't have a ton of needs
right now, but you have a project coming up, or
you're building a manufacturing facility and you know you're going
to need this many welds or this many specific people.
What we can do is we can look at the
landscape of our entire state, of all the individuals in
our care that are being trained, and we can even
work with their release plans or their supervision and see
(22:00):
if perhaps transferring a different release area based on an
actual livable wage job that would turn into a career.
And so we work with employers to really seek out
specific things they need. They're like, Okay, here are no
goes for us. We can't have these individuals or here
are the specific types of things we need. Right. We
have a you know, marine program that the shipyards need
(22:24):
this particular type of welder, right, And so we work
with people to try to cater specifically to their needs,
and we can even allow them to meet the candidates
pre release through virtual technology, through secure Zoom that we
had all said in stuff. Yeah, so these employers can
meet these candidates on a screen, just like you and
I get on teams in Zoom every day.
Speaker 1 (22:45):
What's neat about this opportunity that for those of you
that are employers in businesses? She mentioned at the very
outset of this, there's one hundred some odd programs here
inside of the Department of Corrections where they are offering
training and skills development. And you talk about some of
these people, Man, they've never been given the opportunity to
(23:07):
do something useful, and now they've acquired these skills, They've
made the decision to be different, and this is an
opportunity because they are coming out. That's the I think
that to me is the bottom line here is these
men and women are coming out and we can either
help them be successful or we can hinder their success.
Speaker 2 (23:26):
Yes, absolutely, and I'd like to speak on that really quickly.
So I've been in this work for a really long
time and people are like, well, you're so pro re entry,
you know, what are your thoughts on the other side
of this? My thoughts are very clear. Behind every crime,
there is a victim period, there's no victimless crime. But
at the end of the day, the most dangerous person
we can release is someone who has nothing right, absolutely
(23:47):
no training, no skill, no preparation, no release plan. And
what do they they have? They have absolutely nothing, and
so they are even more dangerous if we don't do
this right. So, if we are really serious about public
say you're really serious about law and order, then we
have to be serious about this part two. And so
for me, I have found that these folks become some
of the most dedicated, loyal They get a taste of success. Yeah,
(24:10):
they don't want to lose it. They're grateful, right, They're loyal,
They're dedicated, and they end up being actually some of
the greatest employees that our partners have.
Speaker 1 (24:18):
You ask some of the people that employ these men
and women, they will tell you exactly those words, because
I've heard those words spoken. Let me also throw a
line out to those of you that are lobbyists. You
lobby for large organizations, you represent a lot of big
businesses or associations, reach out because those are some of
the best links that FFCE comes across. Yes, you introduce
(24:41):
us to the people that you lobby on, behalf of
because you might have a solution to your labor problem.
Sitting right here in front of me in the microphone. Erica,
thanks for all you're doing and what you and Noel.
Noel Monasco is the associate director of FFCEE. You two
are amazing. Thank you, Preston, and and thanks for the
time today. Yeah, thank you Eric Varian f f C.
(25:04):
And again, if you want to learn more of the website,
I've got it pulled up. You can pull it up
really easily. It is FL Correctional Excellence dot com. FL
Correctional Excellence dot com.
Welcome friends, Third Hour ruminators, Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls,
males and females only. It is the third Hour Wednesday
here on the Morning Show with Preston Scott Show five
four hundred and seventy two. But who's counting. That's Jose
over there in Studio one A. I'm here in Studio
(00:26):
one B, and I am joined by a friend, a friend,
a colleague, and someone that I worked with for a
couple of years with the Florida Foundation for Correctional Excellence.
She's the executive director, Erica Averian.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Erica, Hi, Hi, good Mornie. Are you I'm well, I'm well,
happy to be here. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
When you know, it was funny because I've had the
Secretary of Corrections on a few times. You know that
I've had Joe Winkler, the Assistant Secretary for Community Corrections.
We've talked about on this program quite a bit in
recent years, the correctional system and that it's this kind
of epiphany that's happened inside the industry where they're coming
(01:07):
to grips with the fact that it's not prisons. Prisons
is a function that they have to perform incarcerating people
that the criminal justice system says needs need to be incarcerated,
but corrections really implies the real mission and it's helping
prepare men and women to be part of society. Having
(01:30):
said that, FFCEE the Florida Foundation for Correctional Excellence, before
we get into what its role is and making sure
that people understand it clearly, how did you get to
this because this is a calling and I'd love for
people to get a little snapshot of your backstory.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
Sure, thank you so much, Preston. I appreciate that. So,
Florida Foundation for Correctional Excellence in this conversation for short,
we'll reference it as FFSE. Quite a bit was really
born back into SO. We were created to be the
direct support organization for the Florida Department of Corrections, the
largest state agency here in Florida. And how I personally
(02:09):
gravitated to this work was I was actually a volunteer
with the Florida Department of Corrections and at the time,
under the leadership of Secretary Inch and Deputy Secretary Dixon,
now our amazing secretary, they saw something in me as
a contributor to the agency who was seeing the organization
as a correctional system the Department of Corrections, not the
(02:33):
Department of Prisons, and making prison a place of transformation
by bringing the outside world in and sort of being
an untraditional kind of uncanny volunteer. And the backside of
that story of how to becoming a volunteer is I
started my career in child welfare with DCF twenty five
years ago this year, straight out of college. And I
(02:57):
was green and ambitious and woke up every day excited
to give everything I had to that job. I was
in my early twenties, staying up until two o'clock in
the morning reading judicial reviews, sitting in the back of courtrooms.
I was writing along with case managers. I wanted to
understand sort of the why not the what has happened?
(03:19):
Like the what in the heck is wrong with these
people who have lost their child, but what has happened
in their lives to get them here to this point
to have lost their child? And I had a colleague
across the hall from me that had a sign above
her desk we worked in the substance abusewing that said,
help me remember for every client I see my quick
(03:43):
twist of fate could be me. And it always sort
of pierced me, but not so much until it became me.
So four years into that work, my dad caught a
ten year sentence and I got a front row seat personally,
not just for professionally, and I saw things that I
couldn't unsee and heard things I couldn't unhear. And my
(04:05):
dad actually ended up being an individual who made prison
a place of transformation. He took inside out dad, he
took fatherhood. He had difficult conversations, he worked to make amends.
He actually got his ged and studied for the very
first time, was given the opportunity to get an education
in his fifties. He was raised by his grandmother. He
(04:29):
grew up just working with his hands. I'm a daughter
of a roofer. I mean, my dad was buying a
car for five thousand and selling it at the front
yard for six sort of a natural born hustler. That
is not the only thing he was selling. And so
I got a perspective to this world that really shaped
my viewpoint of how I wanted to serve in social
(04:50):
impact and social responsibility. And so that is why I
gravitated to the world of serving in corrections.
Speaker 1 (04:57):
Erica very in my guests, She'll be with me for
most of the hour, and we're going to talk about
the work of FFCEE. We're going to also talk about
the nexus of where many of you listening might find
yourself being part of this effort. We'll explain all of
that and unpack all that here on the Morning Show
with Preston Scott. We were just talking in the break.
(05:18):
You know, friends, as you've listened to me talk about this,
I've gone through my own personal evolution. I've got two
brothers that were in law enforcement, and so I saw
the tough on crime perspective of things and have always
held that view. And then I came across years ago
the pragmatic view up the practical view. And it's one
of the very rare issues in our culture today that
(05:40):
Republicans and Democrats, both sides of the owl, can actually
find a lot of ground to work on together because
men and women are getting out. Erica, quantify that statement
for us a little bit in terms of the numbers.
Speaker 2 (05:56):
Yeah, so here in Florida, we are releasing upwards of
around twenty twenty five thousand plus individuals a year across
the state that have been incarcerated behind the fence. We
also are supervising on probation or parole one hundred and
forty five thousand plus, and then that number continues to rise.
(06:18):
When we look at the entire population of the people
in Florida who have a criminal record, we're looking at
around four million plus. So that is the footprint in
its entirety of justice impacted individuals with a criminal record,
and in our system. Annually we are releasing upwards of
twenty five thousand people.
Speaker 1 (06:37):
And it doesn't necessarily mean that twenty five thousand are
coming off of probation are not going to need continued assistance,
right exactly. So how does ffce come into the picture here?
What was it that caused either the governor or the
secretary to come to the place of saying we need
(06:58):
some help.
Speaker 2 (06:59):
Sure, So FFCEE was created with a simple goal. It
was to turn the opportunity of that second chance, that
third chance, that chance that someone was pursuing into a
real pathway of readiness. Right, these individuals, like you said,
both sides of the aisle, both sides of opinions. Whether
(07:20):
you like it or not, the data is clear, we
are releasing them and so at the end of the day,
they are coming back into our communities. And so we
were created under the mission and the direction to prepare
those individuals as best we can with an actual training
and skill that we can place them into a job.
Speaker 1 (07:39):
Right.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
This makes our community safer, This restores families, This creates
economic mobility, and it really meets the need of our workforce.
So we have leaders across the states in this country
who are really centered around evidence based training, or they're
centered around mental health. You know, our governor back in
twenty twenty and still today is focused on you know,
workforce here in Florida. Sure, and we saw an opportunity
(08:03):
at Florida Department of Corrections to really take an untapped
talent force right, individuals who want to transform, who are
being rehabilitated, who want it, who need it. We're talking
about individuals who are on a pathway to betterment after
their worst day and their worst mistake. We're talking about
people who maybe they're not seeking their second chance, maybe
(08:25):
they never had a first chance, maybe the opportunity they
can't read, they don't have that basic you know, when
you know better, you do better. Right, And so we
were created to take that particular population and subset of
people and really prepare them with a strong opportunity to
go back into our communities in Florida meaningfully occupied with
(08:46):
the job and employment and a skill and trade that
can be a gainful pathway to really really transform their lives.
Speaker 1 (08:56):
Real short version answer to this question is this, I've
I view this right now as one of the best
job markets in years for returning citizens.
Speaker 2 (09:06):
Is at fair Absolutely absolutely. I saw something on Instagram
a couple of days ago that said, you know, the
wealthiest guy in your neighborhood's not going to be the
tech guy. It's going to be the welder. It's going
to be the plumber with six trucks. It's going to
be the handyman. It's going to be the small appliants repair,
It's going to be the trades. And that is what
we are training these individuals in.
Speaker 1 (09:25):
I was not aware until I went through what's called
a re entry simulation, how difficult it can be, no
matter how focused, no matter how intentional you want to
be at being out and making your way and becoming
successful Erica, the hurdles can be not just difficult, they
(09:49):
can be defeating, overwhelming. When I went through that simulation,
I literally said, put me back in jail. Yep. And fortunately,
in one way, shape or form, that's what a lot
of these men and women end up doing because the
challenges are so great. Explain the challenges and what is
being done to address them.
Speaker 2 (10:11):
Yes, so, one of my colleagues calls them constant fireballs, right,
the headwinds that come at you when you are releasing.
So when you look at an individual who has been
in the care and custody of the Florida Department of
Corrections for really any length of time, we do have,
you know, short sentence individuals. But for the most part,
we're talking about state prisons. We're talking about lengthy sentences here.
(10:32):
We're talking about people who are, you know, going through
a transition of getting back out into a world that
they probably did not come from. Right, these for the
majority of the people, this is kind of pre COVID.
We're going to talk about kind of the landscape around
workforce technology as we've socially evolved in a culture, just
in the past five years. Let's look at the landscape
(10:54):
of technology. We're talking about accessibility, transportation, infrastructure, the growth
of our state. Right just from a very high level,
just think about the basic needs we're going to talk
about transportation, We're going to talk about housing, to talk
about a job, We're going to talk about ID readiness.
I mean, these individuals, for the most part, without the
(11:15):
support of a family, really leave with, you know, fifty
dollars and a bus ticket and a readiness plan that
the amazing brave souls at the Florida Department of Corrections
work tiresly to create as strong and best as they can.
But it's best day with everything firing on all cylinders,
even if there's the greatest referral and the tightest paperwork
(11:36):
around ID readiness and the DMV and social Security and
the clerk a court and the health department and career source.
Speaker 1 (11:41):
And just think about that list she's going through right now, friends,
And that's what these men and women are dealing.
Speaker 2 (11:49):
With, Yes, from a bus ticket to ID readiness, to
interviews with employers that are there and second chance friendly. Right,
I mean, this isn't just any job to somebody who
will hire someone with the criminal record. And so these
barriers start to stack up, even on its best day,
even with everything firing, even with the strongest plan, right,
(12:10):
these headwinds, these fireballs start to come and so we
work with the Florida Department of Corrections to prepare these
people the best that we can, and then they may
have supervision. They may be at a transitional house that
has a great solid foundation, maybe a faith based halfway house.
It may be a recovery house. It may have its
own set of rules, and then those rules have to
(12:31):
coincide with the rules of their supervision, right their probation
and parole, and then that's another set of guardrails and structure.
And so they're navigating this re entry with a lot
of different things, and I think the best way that
I can kind of summarize this is we can talk
all day about what's coming at them and sort of
what we're doing to help them navigate it, with our
(12:53):
partnerships with community resources, with providers, with the referral network,
with our release officers, creating the strongest readiness plan, with
all the credentials, with all the certificates, with all the referrals,
with all the things. Is that about five years ago,
I was at a facility visiting with the board members
of Florida Foundation for Correctional Excellence, and this brave student
(13:15):
in a carpentry class stood up and He thanked us
for coming, and he said, I appreciate you coming to
our neighborhood, in our community to see what we're doing
every day. I am not going to pretend that I
have anything meaningful to contribute to the conversation of why
you're here. I heard something about re entry and recidivism,
and I don't have the answers. This is my second
time here, he said, bet I'll tell you this. I
(13:36):
didn't need work boots, I had brand new ones. I
didn't need a bus ticket, I didn't need food, and
I didn't even need a job. I needed one person
I could call, he said. I was at the bus
stop after going to the DNB for the third time
with everything I thought I needed, and I lost my
pool and made a split second mistake that got me
(13:57):
back here. And I'll never forget that, because when we
talk about what are the needs of these individuals, this
person said I needed one person I could call in
that moment, right, What is that one line? What is
that lifeline are So we're building systems around our faith communities,
our nonprofits. We're building that warmer handoff from pre release.
Speaker 1 (14:19):
To post release, trying to find that one person.
Speaker 2 (14:21):
Trying to find that one person.
Speaker 1 (14:24):
That each inmate knows where to go when they are
striking out.
Speaker 2 (14:30):
Yes, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (14:32):
It tied in friends to a discussion I had last
month with Joe Winkler. You might recall the Mobile re
Entry Unit. These are things that FFCE is helping provide
corrections to make it easier for men and women to
be successful. We're going to talk more about all that
next here on the Morning Show with Preston Scott. I
(14:55):
warned her Erica Varian is with me Florida Foundation for
Correctional Excellence. She is the executive director. And as I
told a buddy of mine, sal Newsoh, he and I
had lunch last week and we got to talking about
FFCE and if there's a better person suited for this
(15:16):
work and this job, I don't know who that person
could possibly be. Eric is incredibly gifted. She's very very bright,
intuitive and has a heart. And I think that this
job working in this world and in this realm, I
don't think it's a job, it's a calling. Would you
agree with that? Summery?
Speaker 2 (15:36):
Oh for sure. I mean maybe even a conviction, maybe
even a nagging and gnawing that won't let up.
Speaker 1 (15:41):
Right, right, and you've explained a little bit why one
of the things that I've tried to do and maybe
successfully in some ways and maybe not so very successfully,
and you can help. I want this to transmit now
to our listeners. There are people out there right now
that own businesses. There are people that man businesses. There
are people that just are you know, just folks that
(16:03):
are out there retired and they're curious as to this
way of approaching corrections that's a little bit different. What
should people know about what FFCE has done, the types
of relationships Already you've linked up with what we're doing.
Speaker 2 (16:18):
Sure, so, as I mentioned earlier, just to recap for
folks who just might be dialing in, our real goal
and mission is to bridge the gap between correctional excellence
and employment, so connecting skills that people are getting behind
the fence to actual real labor market needs and jobs.
So I think what I want to start by sharing
is that what people may not know, which is that
(16:41):
our compounds are turning into campuses for the majority of
our facilities, fifty plus facilities across the entire state of Florida.
If you walk on to one of our yards and
compounds from centergate forward. You are going to see everything
from HVAC to carpentry, to electrical to irrigation, to digital design,
to literacy to basic education, all the way up to
(17:04):
almost one hundred plus different crafts in career clusters and
focuses that directly aligned with a need in our workforce
and our labor market. And so what we've done is
we've looked at labor markets that are signaling the biggest need. Okay,
so we're looking at construction.
Speaker 1 (17:22):
That perfect storm of jobs we talked about it.
Speaker 2 (17:24):
Yes, we're looking at manufacturing. And what we've tried to
do at FFC is to build relationships with the small
modmon pops all the way to the big employers that
are statewide in those sectors to create pipelines. I mean,
this is really sophisticated matchmaking here. We're looking at our assets.
We're unique because we're on both sides of the pipeline.
We have the talent that's skilled and trained. And so
(17:48):
what we've done is we built relationships with over one
hundred plus employer partners across the state in all four regions,
and we're bringing them in to understand that footprint of
education and real industry excellence. If you ask me, I
mean you're looking at a facility that really rivals a
technical college, right, and if you look at a manufacturing
(18:09):
and logistics and supply chain course and then a coding
lab and then a heavy equipment operator lab. And so
I'll give just one example. A few years back, the
labor market here in Florida was signaling that they were
hiring women in the construction industry at unprecedented rates. I
mean you look at sort of the interest of women
wanting to get into that field. I mean, we think
(18:29):
that they may want to learn the vocation or the
credential of cosmotology. But maybe that's.
Speaker 1 (18:35):
Okay, I watch HGTV and Magnolia, I know better.
Speaker 2 (18:38):
Right, Okay. And so we had piloted a program and
the population and the students and learners had gravitated to
it in such a meaningful way. We saw potential and
opportunity there, and so we at FFSE really looked at
what would it what would it unfold and be if
we invested in a heavy equipment operator program where we
(18:59):
train these women and every single one of them was
work release eligible, meaning before they are released from prison,
they are out in the community, working for employers in
that field, and then continuing to supplement and compliment training
right that creates an even larger economic mobility around workforce
CDL SO class B, class A. I mean, I'm proud
(19:20):
to say that every single one of those women in
that initial cohort have gone to work release and also
continue not just employment in the field, but also training
that is advancing them in real, livable wage careers. These
are not just jobs. These are careers that are going
to help them stay on the patchory entry and not rectivate.
Speaker 1 (19:44):
Ericavarian with me final segment here, as we're talking about
the Florida Foundation for Correctional Excellence, I know you're all
about networking, partnering, finding those mom and pop businesses large
and small that want to link arms. Because we were
just talking in the break Erica. Having a job waiting
is everything. Yes to these men and women. Yes, What
(20:06):
should a business owner, a manager, somebody that's you've peaued
their curiosity would what should they know?
Speaker 2 (20:13):
Well, they should know that they have an invitation for
me to come into our campuses and our compounds and
look at the sophisticated level of industry credential and training
that we are doing that will meet the needs of
their employment. I mean, essentially, at the end of the day,
what we're doing at FCS, we're building these employment partner showcases.
These are not job fairs, these are not tours, these
(20:35):
are not resource fairs. These are an invitation for business owners,
HR managers, recruiters, middle management, hiring managers to come and
see the talent that they may not know exist in
the level in which it exists. And so we're hosting
these all across the state. Our next one coming up
is going to be on November fifth at Jefferson CI
(20:56):
so here in Region one. Yep, we have one coming
up into some in South Florida at Everglades re Entry
and they're going to be popping up all over the state.
So if you're interested in coming, please visit our website
FL correctionalexcellence dot com and on the homepage it'll take
you right to the upcoming ones where you can RSVP
and all the clearance will be done very easily through
(21:18):
one form. So again that's Flcorrectionalexcellence dot com. Or let's
say you can't make the date to come in and
see what I'm talking about, you can reach out to
us at any time. And what we do is we
essentially build a catered, surveyed, vetted list of job seekers
that would match the needs that you have as an employer.
(21:39):
And let's say you don't have a ton of needs
right now, but you have a project coming up, or
you're building a manufacturing facility and you know you're going
to need this many welds or this many specific people.
What we can do is we can look at the
landscape of our entire state, of all the individuals in
our care that are being trained, and we can even
work with their release plans or their supervision and see
(22:00):
if perhaps transferring a different release area based on an
actual livable wage job that would turn into a career.
And so we work with employers to really seek out
specific things they need. They're like, Okay, here are no
goes for us. We can't have these individuals or here
are the specific types of things we need. Right. We
have a you know, marine program that the shipyards need
(22:24):
this particular type of welder, right, And so we work
with people to try to cater specifically to their needs,
and we can even allow them to meet the candidates
pre release through virtual technology, through secure Zoom that we
had all said in stuff. Yeah, so these employers can
meet these candidates on a screen, just like you and
I get on teams in Zoom every day.
Speaker 1 (22:45):
What's neat about this opportunity that for those of you
that are employers in businesses? She mentioned at the very
outset of this, there's one hundred some odd programs here
inside of the Department of Corrections where they are offering
training and skills development. And you talk about some of
these people, Man, they've never been given the opportunity to
(23:07):
do something useful, and now they've acquired these skills, They've
made the decision to be different, and this is an
opportunity because they are coming out. That's the I think
that to me is the bottom line here is these
men and women are coming out and we can either
help them be successful or we can hinder their success.
Speaker 2 (23:26):
Yes, absolutely, and I'd like to speak on that really quickly.
So I've been in this work for a really long
time and people are like, well, you're so pro re entry,
you know, what are your thoughts on the other side
of this? My thoughts are very clear. Behind every crime,
there is a victim period, there's no victimless crime. But
at the end of the day, the most dangerous person
we can release is someone who has nothing right, absolutely
(23:47):
no training, no skill, no preparation, no release plan. And
what do they they have? They have absolutely nothing, and
so they are even more dangerous if we don't do
this right. So, if we are really serious about public
say you're really serious about law and order, then we
have to be serious about this part two. And so
for me, I have found that these folks become some
of the most dedicated, loyal They get a taste of success. Yeah,
(24:10):
they don't want to lose it. They're grateful, right, They're loyal,
They're dedicated, and they end up being actually some of
the greatest employees that our partners have.
Speaker 1 (24:18):
You ask some of the people that employ these men
and women, they will tell you exactly those words, because
I've heard those words spoken. Let me also throw a
line out to those of you that are lobbyists. You
lobby for large organizations, you represent a lot of big
businesses or associations, reach out because those are some of
the best links that FFCE comes across. Yes, you introduce
(24:41):
us to the people that you lobby on, behalf of
because you might have a solution to your labor problem.
Sitting right here in front of me in the microphone. Erica,
thanks for all you're doing and what you and Noel.
Noel Monasco is the associate director of FFCEE. You two
are amazing. Thank you, Preston, and and thanks for the
time today. Yeah, thank you Eric Varian f f C.
(25:04):
And again, if you want to learn more of the website,
I've got it pulled up. You can pull it up
really easily. It is FL Correctional Excellence dot com. FL
Correctional Excellence dot com.
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