Jan 4, 2008 5:31 pm US/Central
Dallas Firm Helps Former Prisoners Find Success
DALLAS (CBS 11 / TXA 21) ―
On Thursday, Charles Chatman was released from a Dallas prison after 27 years. New DNA tests showed that he was not guilty of the rape charge that put him behind bars. When he walked free after almost three decades of imprisonment, Joyce Ann Brown was by his side.
Brown is part of the Mass Incorporated Agency, a group that wants to make sure that parolees do not make mistakes and find themselves back in jail. The first step toward success is a job. The firm's focus is finding jobs and homes for those paroled from prison.
Tangila Thomas is a case worker in an east Dallas office. Her job is to guide others, the way that she was once guided by Brown. Thomas is also an ex-offender. "I served time in prison for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon," she explained. She now works with the Mass Incorporated Agency.
In both Dallas and Fort Worth, hundreds are released from prison and struggle to find a good job. "It's very hard," said Thomas. "I couldn't obtain work for three years."
"They're not going to be in prison the rest of their lives," said Brown. After she served nine years in prison for a crime she did not commit, it has now become her life's mission to help ex-offenders and work to free the innocent.
"So long as there is breath in my body, I will be that person to keep it on the mind of others, that there are people without DNA that's innocent in prison," Brown said. "And we need to do something about it."
About 800 people signed up for job assistance with Brown's firm in 2006. Of those, about 350 have jobs and 98 percent of them are still working today.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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