NATCHEZ — Adjusting to life after a prison sentence can be difficult, Joey Mitchell said, especially when a former inmate is trying to find a job.

That is why Mitchell, on-campus adviser for Alcorn State University, collaborated with students and the Adams County Sheriff’s Office to create the 2nd Chance Job Fair.

“My students wanted to do something for the community,” Mitchell said. “Our idea was a job fair.”

The job fair, he said, will be held from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. on April 18 at the Adams County Safe Room, near Liberty Park. Mitchell said the job fair is open to anyone looking for employment, not just people with prior convictions.

Mitchell said he and his students have worked especially hard to help draw companies who will hire people with criminal histories.

“Being that I am a prior law enforcement officer and a licensed professional counselor, I understand how the lack of employment can affect people mentally and physically,” he said.

Being an employed, productive member of society, Mitchell said, can reduce the chance of rehabilitated people returning to crime.

“Our community has a rising crime rate and unemployment rate,” Mitchell said. “The idea is to approach crime and rehabilitation from a different angle.”

The job fair, Mitchell said he hopes, should address both crime and unemployment.

So far, Mitchell said he has not seen a lot of community support for the event.

Adams County Sheriff Travis Patten said he hopes Miss-Lou business owners will attend the event.

“If you are interested in giving people a second chance, please come,” Patten said. “From the law enforcement standpoint, the No. 1 thing I hear from people with a record is: ‘I can’t find anyone who will hire me.’ I commend Dr. Mitchell and his students for bringing the jobs to them.”

Patten said offering a second chance to former inmates is important to everyone in the community.

“When they get out of prison, they normally go back to their community,” Patten said. “That’s what they know. We want to give them every opportunity to become productive citizens.”

The job fair was the brain-child, Mitchell said, of the Sigma Chi Iota leadership team.

Mitchell founded the Sigma Chi Iota Academic Honors Society on Aug. 12, 2015, as a non-profit group comprised of students interested in career services.

Just three years later, Mitchell said the group has more than 400 members and a 15-student leadership team that chose the job fair as its project.

Mitchell said the leadership team approached him with the idea in January, and he reached out to the Adams County Sheriff’s Office to aid in organizing the job fair.

More than 15 companies — including Sanderson Farms, Jordan Carriers, Waffle House and Walmart — have already signed on to attend the fair, Mitchell said, and a lawyer will be available to help attendees with understanding how they might go about seeking to expunge their records.

Any businesses interested in joining the job fair, Mitchell said, should contact him or the sheriff’s office for further information.