Second Chance Coalition helps ex-offenders fit back in

Last year, 3 bills were passed in Minnesota to help ex-cons. One of them was eliminating the box on a job application asking if you've ever been charged with a felony.

One of the speakers at the event spent 5 years in prison for 2 different felony charges. He's now working his way toward a college degree, and continuing to try and live a normal life. Something all of the speakers say is difficult when you have the stigma of jail time always attached to your name.

Kaleb Morken is going to MSUM to become a social worker in hopes of helping people who've had similar struggles as him. Because of his life experience he says he can better relate to people he'd be working with, but because of his past it's unknown if he'd even be able to get a license after graduation.

"People have gone to try and get a job in this field that have the understanding and empathy needed to become an extremely essential member of that group and they haven't been able to get a job. The best person for a job can not attain that job because of something that has happened in their past."

Morken says like a lot of people time behind bars gave him motivation to now do right and want to be apart of society, but once your out, he says it's near impossible to obtain any community status, making it very easy to resort to old ways and end up back in here.

"Watching individuals walk out the doors and come back in three months later and myself doing the same thing when I was sure that I was going to do things differently. Understanding that it takes more than the idea, but there needs to be a fundamental change that takes place."

Morken says immersion is the only way to give people an honest 2nd chance. Give them the right to live and work with people who haven't served time. Let them feel the pride of changing their lives.

Morken says he's getting on his feet because of great family support. He did find a company in Fargo that's letting him get field experience while going to school.

Tags: reporter stories, todd kurtz, crime, moorhead, business