BATON ROUGE, La. (WAFB) - Each year, more than 13,000 people return home from Louisiana prisons.

State leaders and workforce experts are working to educate more companies to give formerly incarcerated people a second chance by hiring them.

Louisiana Right on Crime hosted a forum on Tuesday, Sept. 23, to walk businesses through the steps and benefits of second-chance hiring.

According to Louisiana Workforce Commission Secretary Susie Schowen, getting those individuals plugged into new jobs will fill a gap currently being seen in unemployment across the state.

“We’re really focused on making sure that we have enough people to meet the increasingly growing demand for those kinds of workers, and this population can be a really great way to fill those jobs,” said Schowen.

Many inmates go t

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