ARTHUR JOURNET HAS WORKED as a machinist in a fabrication shop since he completed the Parole Project reintegration program and went to live with family in October 2018. He credits the encouragement and resources of Parole Project and the support of his family, along with his desire and ability, to land a solid job so soon after completing his reintegration programming.
“I had a strong need to get back to work,” he said. “I wanted a job where I could put my skills to use, to make enough money for the bills and even save some too. There are older family members who will need to be taken care of one day and I want them to be able to depend on me to help them out.
“All these years they waited for me to come home, and they supported and loved me. As soon as I got out I wanted to free them from the burden of worrying about me. I had dreams of taking care of others for a change. But I was lost.”
Arthur feared he didn’t fully understand the process of reestablishing himself in a significantly changed world and was concerned that his two-plus decades of incarceration had left him out of touch. “Would people even hire me once they knew where I had been all those years?” he wondered. “Parole Project gave me the confidence I needed to move forward. I looked around and I saw people, professional people, who had been incarcerated once and I thought, ‘I can do that too!'”
Though he likes his job and looks forward to talking with his coworkers when he clocks in for the night shift, Arthur dreams of doing and being more. “I know my skills could be used for even bigger and better things. The only thing standing in my way is a TWIC card (Transportation Worker Identification Credential), but I am in process of trying to get one of those. I’m making an appeal to TSA to consider my rehabilitation and not outright refuse me because of my conviction. Parole Project helped me do that too.”
When he is not at work one of Journet’s favorite things is going for drives. He likes to turn on the radio and make leisurely runs down the scenic rural highways surrounded by the lush vegetation and wildlife so abundant in southwest Louisiana. “Just the freedom to get in a car and go, to have the chance to look around at all these beautiful places right here in my town, it feels so good and it never gets old,” he said. “Sometimes I take my mom and I’ll say, ‘Look at how nice those people landscape their yards,’ or Mamma will say, ‘I remember the family that used to live there, and she’ll tell me a story about it. That’s how I entertain myself,” he laughed. “Just a few bucks for gas, music on the radio and some good weather and I’m set. I’m just riding around looking at my home town and daydreaming about what the future might hold for me.”
