A Felony Is A Life Sentence

Did you know that 56% of violent felons are repeat offenders and 61% of all felons are repeat offenders? One of the reasons for this is that society gives them no choice. Many felons find themselves out of prison, free men or women, unable to find a job. Most companies will refuse to hire someone with a felony on their record, violent or non violent. Left with no employment options, it's easy to imagine that these felons will reoffend. Ron has told me so many stories about men he met at Taft who were there for the second time, because being in prison, with a roof over your head, three square meals a day, and free medical care, was better than being homeless, rejected socially, and unable to get even the most menial job. (FYI, if a minor steals a car or robs a 7-11, it is likely his record will be expunged and he will never face these problems, it will be as if he never did anything wrong).

The punishment for a particular crime may be 24 months of incarceration, but the actual punishment lasts a lifetime. Try to apply for a job if you have a record and one of two things happen. Either the application will have a box you must check if you have ever been convicted of a crime, or the employer will google you or do a background check. In either case, you will not receive an offer. With so many people out of work, why should an employer take a chance and hire a felon?

Back in the days before the internet and extensive background checks, felons who applied for jobs, especially construction, food service and other trade jobs, were hired and became productive members of society. Today there seems to be very little forgiveness to past misdeeds. Make one mistake and it may influence the rest of your life.

A friend of mine told me about a man she knew who had served his time, was hired by a company (can't remember what he did) where he worked for 4 years. He was a model employee. One day someone in HR discovered that he had a criminal record. He was fired the next day.

Not only is the criminal justice system broken, but the reentry program for these men and women offers them little or no hope for success. I don't know what the answer is, I just know that this is another of the important social problems of our time that are not being dealt with. We are incarcerating more and more people every year, building bigger and better prisons all the time (THIS IS BIG BUSINESS, FOLKS), all of which will create more and more homeless or low income people integrating back into society, as they are released. Unfortunately I have learned much of this firsthand.