Posted on   12/12/2011  4:52 PM

One of the world’s wealthiest and most high-profile businessman is championing a positive attitude toward ex-offenders.

Richard Branson is encouraging Virgin Group of companies to employ people freshly released from prison -- and even some still inside and working towards their release, reports The Guardian.

"Everybody deserves a second chance," Branson told the British newspaper.

It would be great if other businesses followed suit, especially in the U.S., which incarcerates more people than any other nation.

Many of our children’s parents are returning from prison with no chance of landing jobs because employers aren’t willing to hire them. So begins the vicious start of a cycle that often ends with the ex-inmates returning to prison, too often for getting in trouble due to a lack of a job.

Branson decided to employ ex-offenders after spending a day in a high-security prison in Melbourne, Australia, two years ago, following an invitation from his friend and Comic Relief creator, Jane Tewson, according to the newspaper. He met representatives from Australian transport company Toll, which over the past decade has employed about 460 ex-prisoners, none of whom are known to have re-offended so far.

Branson was deeply impressed.

"As soon as I got back to England, I contacted the MDs of Virgin companies and said to them that we must do the same; to try to take on as many ex-convicts as possible," he said to the newspaper.

In a letter to a newspaper last month, Branson and seven other chief executives, called for more companies to employ people with a criminal record. "Our experience shows that people from prison, if properly selected, will prove to be just as reliable as recruits who come from elsewhere. It is their personality that matters most," they wrote, the Guardian reported.

We agree.

What do you think needs to happen for many other employers to give more ex-offenders a chance at getting hired?