By Patrick Fox
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
GEORGIA — If you think it’s tough finding a job in this market, try doing it from a prison cell.
For two weeks now, Candice Mullins has arisen before dawn and walked more than three miles to the bus stop to begin her daily job search.
Mullins, 36, a work-release resident at the Gwinnett County Comprehensive Correctional Complex in Lawrenceville, was once a medical technician, but she lost her license after a felony forgery conviction. She now scours restaurants and hotels for work.
“I’ve put out loads and loads of applications, and I haven’t hardly gotten anybody to call me back,” Mullins said.
The prison’s work-release program has 121 residents in its 288-bed facility on Hi Hope Road.
The program was designed in 1995 for those already employed, but more are entering without a job, said warden David Peek.
“I think it’s a very worthwhile program,” Peek said. “It gives the local judges a sentencing option that basically allows them to incarcerate somebody without depriving them of their livelihood.”
Residents are supposed to pay for the operation of the facility with an initial fee of $125, then $16 a day. But the number of residents has dwindled from an average of 183 in 2007 to an average 143 now. Of the 121 current residents, 98 have jobs.
Deputy warden Jeff Sligar says the county is subsidizing about 40 percent of the operation.
Residents usually are given up to three weeks to find employment or they are transferred to the prison.
“We’re rooting for them,” Sliger said. “If they fail, their families suffer, restitution isn’t paid.”
Cobb County, whose Sheriff’s Department runs a similar program for 120 residents, reports a similar decline in employment. Of the 70 residents in that program, 58 have jobs, said spokeswoman Nancy Bodiford.
But some find the job search too much.
“We’ve had a couple of residents that have just given up,” Peek said.
Copyright 2009 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution