CeaseFire, his organization, hires former offenders, trains them in conflict mediation and negotiation, and sends them into the thick of things.
Among them is National Grid; part of the Offender Training and Employment Programme, it has trained and employed more than 200 prisoners to date and aims to train and employ up to 1,000 offenders by the end of 2007.
Four and a half years later, Virgin Trains West Coast's employment programme for ex-offenders has trained and placed 25 candidates in full-time jobs with the company (five others dropped out after deciding that they "didn't fit").
Thus, in one study, for example, empathy for a personal offender was trained over eight 1-hour sessions and an increase in reported empathy and forgiveness but not prosocial behavior was measured [19].
Education and training are helping youth offenders prepare for life outside these walls.
Harris also took over and retooled the county's diversion program, called Back on Track, which offers nonviolent, first-time offenders job training and other life skills as an alternative to jail.
But even before the unrest, Johns Hopkins has been investing heavily in communities that include its campuses, partnering with city schools, providing summer jobs for high school and college students, and hiring and training ex-offenders at Johns Hopkins Hospital.
"When they leave prison, relatively few offenders are really trained to move into the 21st-century economy and work force," said Ira M. Schwartz, dean of the University of Pennsylvania's School of Social Work.
The 2001 Youth Farm Stand Project, which is training 60 juvenile offenders and then sending them out to sell produce, is a combined effort of Rutgers University and the state Juvenile Justice Commission.
As its name suggests, it may include two or more probation appointments a week, weekly meetings to find the offender education, training or job opportunities, and it engages with their family to help reduce the individual's likelihood of reoffending.
