About that felony…
Whew. I know it’s hot where you are. It’s hot everywhere. Well, if you’re joining me from the southern hemisphere where it’s winter, just know we’re all a little bit jealous right now. The Mid Atlantic isn’t as hot as my west Texas roots, but you know…hot is hot. And it is.
Speaking of hot. I got a little hot under the collar this week. You know…things that make you go “hm”???? A friend was invited to the white house. There was a panel discussion about violence prevention and reentry, etc, and this is his business. He is justice-impacted, as were the panelists, so of course, who better to discuss violence than the folks who were invited to attend? INVITED TO ATTEND. Yeah. I’m shouting that.
You can probably guess where this is going. They were denied entrance by the secret service due to their past felony conviction. You can view the story here.
These are felony convictions that are decades old. These are folks who’ve not only remained free from justice-involvement since their return to the community, but have made it their life’s mission to give back, pay it forward, make the world a better place.
You can’t miss the irony of this event given the past few weeks of news blasts about how a felony conviction doesn’t prohibit you from being President of the United States.
It does, however keep you from living in most apartment complexes, getting jobs in industries like medicine, finance, education, transportation, and most government offices (unless you’re the president, apparently). In some states, you can’t be a barber or a cosmetologist. It’s been common practice in the United States to make felons ineligible to vote, in some cases permanently. In theory, you can attend university if you have a criminal record. In reality, though, nearly 75% of higher ed institutions ask applicants to disclose criminal convictions. Worse, one study found that HEI’s rejected 10% of applicants without criminal records but denied 33% of those with felonies.
Well, I could keep this up for a few days. The barriers that keep people who have a criminal record from living, working, and bettering themselves in any constructive way are so numerous, just thinking of them exhausts me.
So here’s what I suggest: let’s be fair across the board. If a felony conviction means “once a bad egg, always a bad egg,” let’s amend the constitution to say bad eggs can’t be president. If we believe that every person is capable of overcoming adversity and isn’t defined by their worst mistakes, then let’s say that once they’ve paid off the debt to society that was imposed upon them at the time of their conviction, they can live, work, and do whatever the rest of the country who doesn’t have a criminal record does to better themselves. Seems fair to me. If a felony conviction doesn’t keep someone from holding the highest job in the land, then should it keep them from being a barber?
If a society operates where a group of citizens can live above the law, there is a group that is forever under its heel.
And that’s all the quasi-political thinking I can do on this beautiful, albeit hot, Sunday morning. I hope you’re cool and contemplating the peaceful beauty that is your life. But while you’re having that cup of joe or refreshing glass of iced tea, I also hope you take some time to consider the un-justness that occurs in our criminal justice system and how there are many, many warriors out here trying to make a dent in it.
Tallyho justice warriors!
