Leave your feedback Share Copy URL https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/program-works-to-find-ex-offenders-transitional-jobs Email Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Tumblr Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Transcript Nearly 700,000 people leave prison each year, many times to be returned to society with no marketable skills and limited chances for employment. The Chicago-based Safer Program works to find ex-offenders transitional jobs in an effort to reduce recidivism rates. Read the Full Transcript Notice: Transcripts are machine and human generated and lightly edited for accuracy. They may contain errors. ELIZABETH BRACKETT, NewsHour Correspondent: It's a tough job, sorting through trash at this Chicago recycling center, but it's a job M.C. Ellis is grateful to have. Ellis, 38, got out of prison last July, after serving 15 years on a murder conviction. When he got out, able only to read at a third-grade level, he didn't have the skills for most jobs, and he came home to a very different world. M.C. ELLIS, ALLIED WASTE WORKER: It's changed. ELIZABETH BRACKETT: What was the biggest change? M.C. ELLIS: Computers and telephones and… ELIZABETH BRACKETT: The computers and telephones? M.C. ELLIS: Yes, so, Internet, so… ELIZABETH BRACKETT: Did you have any idea how to work a computer? M.C. ELLIS: No. ELIZABETH BRACKETT: No training in prison? M.C. ELLIS: No. ELIZABETH BRACKETT: How about a phone? M.C. ELLIS: No, I still don't know how to use them.