How so? They're prohibited from possessing firearms, so they're not suited for armed security, but there's nothing structural preventing them from earning a living. Plenty of companies will hire felons, just not all of them.
There needs to be massive revision across society if this were to happen, jobs, housing, life...it is all burdened for the felon greater than the time in prison was. Many have trouble just adjusting to things like the choices in the supermarket...let alone navigating the troubles of finding housing.
In the town I live in, (Inland NW, US), the majority of "affordable" rentals are all rented by a small number of property management companies which do not seem to be local and have 1-800 numbers. This covers a very sizable portion of the apartment buildings...guess what...they DO NOT rent to people with drug felonies...burglar...sure. But if you sold marlijuana 20 years ago you cannot rent from them...period.
So...combine that with an area which the average rent has tripled in the last 20 years...with a massive shortage of for sale properties and what are these people to do?
Work and other things are tricky as well...it isn't that a felon cannot get a job...but they are very likely to be manipulated by their employer. They will typically be paid less and be treated differently than their coworkers.
Couple all that with the ineligibility for SBA loans if you have felony convictions...now what?
You are likely to be able to get a passport and such...but most will never truly see these things go off their record permanently...unless you get a withheld judgement you are still required to say "yes" to the have you ever been convicted question. Employers being required to ask "in the last x years have you been convicted?" solves that issue...allows for the punishment to be served and forgiven. "have you ever been convicted?" assumes there is no retribution possible ever.
Yep. It's gotten bad enough that people will actually take a longer period of incarceration if it doesn't involve probation afterward. And good luck finding an employer who will hire a felon. Hell, good luck finding a landlord who will rent to you.
It is difficult to do quite a few things in the US once you are convicted of a felony.
You are limited on grants, student loans, SBA loans and most programs in areas like the medical field will not even accept people with criminal backgrounds at all due to the low likelihood of finding employment post training (when there is a waiting list felons will be at the bottom).
So add on top of that the fact that most people won't hire a felon...where do you go. Difficult to find gainful employment, less chance of training and then you are limited in finding funding for a small business.
Edit: In this world to In the US
Also, housing. Having a felony can exclude you from rentals entirely. Most property management companies will not rent to felons regardless of time since last conviction.
You're not opening yourself to a lawsuit, it's still perfectly legal to refuse to hire felons because "I don't like felons." You just can't avoid meeting them and interviewing them.
A majority of housing is no felon. Work is damn tough, and people get paid bottom dollar. In some places you can't vote.
A lot of activities prohibit felons too. Being a coach, for example, isn't a walk in the park.
And your traffic stops? Ugh.
I know this due to a friend stuck with one. Hanging with the wrong people, group case. First offense. It's pretty brutal.
In many States expungement isn't possible on many felony crimes either. Someone who got the message, living right, can't escape it despite the clear reform.
Because sometimes felons use their place of residence as the center of the location of their felonies? And sometimes those felonies are against nearby people? If you had an apartment complex, you wouldn't want to rent to a breaking-and-entering specialist, or even a car thief. You wouldn't want to rent to a meth manufacturer or distributor. And you wouldn't want to rent to a serial rapist.
Eventually it just becomes easier to just say "no felons" than to try to figure out whether this particular brand of felony is going to negatively impact you or your other residents.
On the other hand, felons have to live somewhere...
It's interesting seeing people get upset at this. I'm a felon - and this makes sense to me. It's your business, you should choose who works for you.
While it's illegal in the US for most places to outright not hire you solely because you're a felon, you'll have a hard time actually proving that.
If you go by the numbers, felons are more likely to break the law again than folks that aren't felons. You can argue up and down the _why_ around this, but that's the numbers.
I'm not saying I agree with it, but it's your right to hold your opinion and run your business in a way you see fit.
To be fair we ban people with felony convictions from huge swathes of jobs, formally or informally, even if the crime happened decades ago. Also, good luck finding a place to live legally if you've been convicted of a sex crime.
> Having a felony can exclude you from rentals entirely
Thanks to European data protection laws at least this kind of discrimination is illegal over here.
But the rest is valid in EU too, it might not be an express "we don't hire felons"/"we don't loan to felons", but good luck trying to "cover up" a stint in jail. A few months, maybe a year tops might be excusable as "I went to India and found myself" (and still if your employer ever finds out you doctored your CV, he's eligible to fire you at an instant, even in Germany)... but anything above a year, much less a decade in prison, and you're SOL for anything but literally mowing lawns. And of course being in jail also does nothing to help your credit, quite on the contrary - lawyer bills might send you into bankruptcy too, so you're stuck with no job, no money, no credit and next to no chance to get back on your feed without serious external help - the chances are higher if you're white and speak the language, though.
There's a reason why recidivism rates are so damn high, and a massive systematic underfunding of the "after-jail-services" is a huge part of it.
I was arguing with a friend that convicted felons shouldn't be discriminated against in job searches, or they will never become upstanding members of society. Then later I was thinking about how someday I'm going to rent out my apartment. And if I do a background check on a tenant, and it turns out they are a convicted felon, I honestly couldn't let them rent the apartment because it's too risky. I feel bad about it, but when it comes to risking my own assets, I can't do it!
There are a lot of people with a felony record who pose zero additional risk to their employer. Of course it depends on the person and it depends on the job. It certainly doesn't make sense to have a strict policy against all felons regardless of individual circumstances.
I never understood the whole felon thing, if that is allowed discrimination outside certain roles how can those people ever be expected back to society? Ofc, they are going to do more crime if it is their only realistic option for reasonable income.
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