How a Jackson nonprofit started helping those once incarcerated find jobs
Richard Boykin works 10-hour days loading pallets of Pepsi products into trucks.
Boykin was released from prison in June. He said having a job keeps him focused and is helping him rebuild his life.
"It's busy," the 33-year-old Crystal Springs resident said about his job, which he likes. "With slow work, time is slow, and everything is."
Boykin, who started working about a month ago, had help finding employment from Jackson-based Mississippi Prison Industries Corp., a nonprofit that started a program to help the formerly incarcerated find work and reenter society.
"We saw a need," said Donte Jones, a reentry coordinator at MPIC's office in Jackson. "There were guys getting work training on the inside and there needed to be follow up on the outside."
MPIC is at all state prisons except Marshall County Correctional Facility and provides jobs and other services like career counseling and life skills training, Jones said.