Criminals Deserve a Second Chance Essay

There are many barriers to reentry. The convicted felon is denied the right to vote, they are not granted access to student loans, welfare benefits, public housing, or food stamps (Gideon & Sung, 2011, p. 8). In addition, these released offenders regularly return to communities that are experiencing social decay, are plagued by poverty, and few employment opportunities (Gideon & Sung, 2011, p. 8). They are also denied entry into a number of employment fields due to their status as a felon. Denying them assistance and a social safety net often hinders their reentry abilities and their transformation to a law-abiding citizen (Gideon & Sung, 2011, p. 8). As mentioned prior, the added burden of intensive supervision can also be problematic to successful reentry.

Many would say that offenders are hopeless and if one looks at the rate of recidivism, one would definitely think that our nation’s offenders are indeed hopeless. However, what if there was a way to reduce the rate of recidivism and at the same time rehabilitate offenders in order to make them functioning members of the community? Reentry programs that are implemented correctly cannot only reduce the rate of recidivism but at the same time help to rehabilitate an offender through education, treatment, and therapy. The Second Chance At is a law that went into effect April 29, 2008 (P.L. 110-199) and it allows government agencies to provide services to offenders that will help to reduce the rate of recidivism as well as improve the

Besides, assisting the ex-offenders in becoming competitive is equally important to make them productive to their employers if given equal opportunities. The program in Kentucky aims at making the employer understand their situation while getting back to the society. Thus, it assists them psychologically and through other means to prepare to face new challenges. Besides, some of the counties and cities that note the devastating effect of not employing the ex-convicts remove the criminal records from a job application. The reform commonly has the name ‘ban the box’ that aim at reducing discrimination of qualified ex-convicts while applying for jobs (Entin, 2015). The use of ban the box is beneficial especially in the early stages of the hiring process when employers do not know their potential employees

Ban the Box: an international campaign to persuade companies to remove the check box that asks if applicants have criminal history from their job applications.

This poses dilemmas as for employment breaks. Another disadvantage that comes to play is the initiative filling out the form of employment (The application). On that application for employment; reads a box that states criminal history, arrests previous to applying, also asks

While the intention of “Ban the Box” is to give ex-offenders a fair chance at attaining employment; it has instead created an unreasonable burden on employers by imposing higher recruitment costs, opening the employer up to more negligent hiring lawsuits, and jeopardizing the safety of their employees. The passing of this legislation is an unnecessary inconvenience on employers and punishes them for protecting its employees and profits. This hassle is particularly seen in the recruitment process.

The benefits of having Ban the Box laws would reduce recidivism. Employment is a vital factor for people reentering society from prison because people with criminal records that have a stable working environment are less likely to reoffend (Weissert, 2016, p. 1534). Ban the Box laws differ for when the employer can find out about the applicants criminal history, but by not having to admit to a criminal history on the intimal application it allows employers to rely on unfounded stereotypes of people with criminal records than forming their own opinion of the applicants character (Weissert, 2016, p. 1536). By the employer not being able to find out later in the

This project will utilize Option B as a means to relay a policy/strategy implemented based on offender reentry. In 2005, President Bush implemented the Prisoner Reentry Initiative(PRI) to reintegrate ex-offenders into communities of society. The Reentry Initiative intention is to equip ex-offenders with the skill set and abilities to become productive law-abiding citizens of society. The Second Chance Act enacted on April 9, 2008, to expand the current offender reentry program that was currently being utilized

Phillip it is clear that you have a complete explanation of the back ground requirement that so many employers utilize to classify potential employees. Yet with this classification many very capable candidates are quickly eliminated for either old run in’s with the law or youthful ignorance. To this end, we as a society have alienated the youth who have fallen into the trap of conviction of a crime. Clearly it is not necessary to penalize people who have repaid their debt to society for their life making them unfit for hire. The question is what is the answer to solve this injustice that is imposed on these candidates? In my view companies could have what they call a conditional hire that would go longer for a year than a traditional 90 day

A history of incarceration reduces an ex-felon’s chance of being hired by fifteen to thirty percent as well as the annual number of weeks worked by six to eleven weeks. That is a large amount of people! This is a big problem that is not to be dismissed. Having been incarcerated leads to struggles in finding a job. Some employers do not even consider hiring people with any kind of criminal record, they are much more likely to hire someone without one instead (Prison Legal News). These statistics and studies show that unemployment rates are in fact higher for

There are currently two million Americans who are incarcerated in our country’s prison system at this time. Each year there around roughly 650,000 released (Prisoner Reentry). These individuals are faced with many challenges when reintegrating themselves back into society. This is a very difficult time for them and often times things do not go as everyone planed. This time period is filled with disappointments, whether it be to the parole officers, their families or themselves. Leaving prison to reenter the world can cause a lot of confusion and emotions for the ex-offender. Being free leaves the responsibility up to them to make sure that they succeed in life and do not make the same mistakes twice.

It did not apply to me so I always ignored it, but now I see. I see how someone’s criminal record can hold them back continuously. This is all

After conducting my own research on Ban the Box movement to prohibit employers from requiring disclosure of past criminal convictions on employment. I noticed that the Ban the Box movement was put together by civil rights groups, and other advocates for ex-offenders. The movement is also an international campaign that is aimed at convincing employers abroad to remove the criminal history box (box that asks if an applicant has been arrested) from the applications. I truly understand the purpose of this movement, which is to enable ex-offenders a better chance at landing a job while on parole or after they are released from jail. For instance, if an ex-offender has a tough time finding a job after incarceration, then he/she will have a higher

The main issue with background checks is a broken system it now operates under. The national instant criminal background check system has been in use since 1998 and to date has processed “160 million transactions of these almost one million were denied.” (National Instant Criminal Background Check System Operations 2012) While these numbers may sound promising we will explain later on why it has not had the desired effect. “As a result of the gun control act of 1968, certain people, such as convicted felons, immigration violators, sexual offenders and many others are prohibited from

Conster your discussion response has covered lawsuits and the protected class known as “Disparate treatment of protected classes”. In light, of the actual difficulties that these protected classes face there are many things set within our society that stack the deck against these individuals. One of the most current issues that malign them is the proliferation of the conviction question on applications that ask prospective applicants if they have ever been convicted of a felony. Because of this most delicate of questions many applicants are automatically eliminated from high paying jobs. In the article, “Race, Employment, and Crime: The Shifting Landscape of Disparate Impact Discrimination Based on Criminal Convictions.” The authors explain