All sentences are for life - But the past shouldn’t be the first thing people see
Appeared in print: Tuesday, Dec 1, 2009
Opinion: Editorials & Letters: Story
The city of Eugene’s experiment with the removal of the “Have you ever been convicted of a felony?” question from job applications illuminates potentially contradictory attitudes toward crime and punishment. People want serious consequences, including prison sentences, to follow the commission of a crime. At the same time, they understand that pursuing the possibility of rehabilitation is the best way, perhaps the only way, to curb recidivism. At what point are felons regarded as having paid the price for criminal acts, allowing them to begin a new life with a clean slate?
As a practical matter, the answer is: Never.
Ron Chase, director of Sponsors, the Eugene organization that helps former inmates after their release from prison, says that all sentences are life sentences — felons carry an indelible stigma when they walk out of the prison gates, even after they’ve technically paid their debt to society. The stigma manifests itself in a thousand ways. The question on job applications about past felony convictions is just one of them.
Because felons can’t escape the past, they’re more vulnerable than others to every social pathology: unemployment, homelessness, addiction and, undeniably, criminal behavior. Every two-time loser started as a one-time loser. Employers, landlords, lenders, family and friends know that a person who committed one crime might commit another, and calibrate their relationships accordingly. The lack of trust and the denial of opportunity form a self-reinforcing cycle: Recidivism is expected because it’s known to occur, and it occurs because it’s so widely expected.
The Partnership for Safety and Justice, a group made up of people with criminal records, crime survivors and their families, aims to break the cycle with its “Think Outside the Box” campaign. The group wants employers to omit the box on job applications in which job seekers place a check mark if they’ve been convicted of a felony. A number of employers, including Multnomah County, have agreed. The city of Eugene will try leaving the question off its applications for a year, and will then evaluate the results.
This does not mean that the city will ignore job applicants’ criminal histories. A felony conviction simply won’t be a part of the initial screening. Applicants who seem suited to a particular position by experience, education, skills and temperament will be asked in subsequent stages of the hiring process about their criminal records. Child sex offenders won’t be put in charge of youth recreation programs, and embezzlers won’t be hired to keep the books. But otherwise qualified applicants with criminal records will have a chance to make their case — a chance that may never come if all that’s known of their backgrounds is that they checked a box on a form.
Everyone, not just employers, needs to think hard about ways to reintegrate people with criminal records into society. The United States has the highest incarceration rate in the world, with 2.3 million people in federal, state or local prisons. Nearly all of them will be released some day. They will need to find jobs, housing and new ways of living — otherwise, they’re likely to end up back behind bars.
None of this requires any reduction of accountability. People who commit crimes should expect the punishment that follows. After they’ve paid that price, they are responsible for creating new and productive lives for themselves, and should not be surprised to encounter long-lingering suspicion and lack of sympathy. A felon will always be a felon. But that shouldn’t be the first thing that employers and others see.
