>>Joe Felon ... whose main qualification is that he's proven to be a screw-up .... who need not worry about rent or grocery money? Whose work schedule will be influenced by the prison shuttle - with the result that he will work hours not available to a 'good' kid?<<

That more or less describes the 3 jailbirds we have had (briefly) at my shop over the years. Not worth the trouble. I would like to believe you make judgements based on the individual, that is very high minded, but the two I have worked with were just screw-ups. Lazy and sent to the joint on drug offenses. That fundamental portion of their charachter did not change even after incarceration and none had his priorities straight or his *poop* together, and two ended up back in jail for parole violations committed in their private lives "off the clock" and outside of work. I have seen other posters speak of hightly motivated and directed ex-cons working constructively and hard to make lemonade out of the lemons their lives have delivered them, but it hasn't been my personal experience with ex-cons. Don't get me wrong, I hold out hope and would like to meet some like this, but the ones I have had the dubious pleasure to have known inside and outside work had mildly serious emotional and psychological problems which were the true source of their "bad luck" in life as well as their yen for and inability to resist life's darker side. Still it is a hard call to make. Boils down to your ability to size people up- all kinds of people. Based on my experience I lean moderately towards "no way".. Too many emotional and psychologial and personality issues that materialize as workers who can't get along with *whoever* and aren't dependable

Last edited by trollog; 06/13/07 12:03 AM.