CONCORD, N.H. (AP) – A job fair later this month in Manchester aims to match ex-convicts and pretrial defendants with willing employers.

The job fair, scheduled for Sept. 25, is open to job seekers on probation or in pretrial supervision at the state and federal level. Booths are free to employers.

A similar job fair last fall attracted only about a dozen companies. Thomas Tarr, chief federal probation officer in Concord, said he hopes more employers will sign up once they learn about the benefits of hiring a former inmate. Companies that hire offenders under court supervision are eligible for tax credits and federal bonds. He also tries to alleviate the worries of companies hesitant of hire ex-convicts.

“We tell (companies) that we are only going to make referrals if people are motivated to work,” Tarr said. “If they have no skills are not motivated to have employment, we are not going to send them those people.”

Tarr said the job fair is a next step in trying to develop employment prospects for offenders who may have been out of the workplace for a long time. He said it’s an expansion of an informal system in which probation officers called employers they knew to help clients find work.

“We have recognized for some time lack of employment among defendants is a big problem,” Tarr said. “It’s an issue we have wanted to focus on for a long time. We all know that in this business there is a correlation between success in the community and being fully employed.”

Eric Giroux, co-owner of a Nashua wall company, has taken a booth at the job fair after hiring an ex-convict three months ago. Giroux said the man, who served time on a federal drug conviction, has learned to do drywall and carpentry work and is doing well he is looking for more employees from the corrections pool. Giroux said he pays the employee $15 an hour and that will likely go up to $20 soon.

Giroux said at first he was worried that other subcontractors at a job would blame his crew if tools or supplies went missing from a construction site, but he’s not longer concerned.

“It’s gone really well,” he said.

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Information from: Concord Monitor, http://www.cmonitor.com

AP-ES-09-03-07 1134EDT