Stigma Of Ex-Convicts

It is a status that will follow and affect every ex-offender even after they have served their time in jail. In this case, our criminal-justice system is constantly discriminating against African Americans in order to identify them as felons and take away their rights. Currently, more than two million African Americans are under the control of the criminal-justice system--in prison or jail, on probation or parole. Felon-disenfranchisement laws bar thirteen percent of African American men from casting a vote, thus making mass incarceration an effective tool of voter suppression--one reminiscent of the poll taxes and literacy of the Jim Crow era. Employers routinely discriminate against an applicant based on criminal history, as do landlords. In some major urban areas, more than half of working-age African American men have criminal record and are subject to legalized discrimination for the rest of their lives. These men are permanently locked into an inferior, second-class status, or caste, bylaw and custom. As Alexander argues, we have not ended racial caste in America; we have merely redesigned it.

Felon disenfranchisement can affect society as a whole by further marginalizing and alienating formerly incarcerated individuals, thus forming a community of ex-felons excluded from civil society. Losing one's voting rights extends feelings of not being wanted and a feeling of powerlessness. Those who are stripped of their basic voting rights will receive the message that what they have to say, mainly about who they want to represent them, does not matter. If a group of people don't believe they are seen as a part of society, they are less likely to engage and contribute to their community. By categorizing all ex-offenders together and decreeing disenfranchisement, communities will divide in a manner of whose voice matters and whose does not. Compared to other world leading countries, the united states has arguably the most politically divided communities but the problem lies on whether people can express their opinions or not, in this case through voting. Alexander writes “No other country in the world disenfranchises people who are released from prison in a manner even remotely resembling the United States” (158). This mass disenfranchisement creates a country where its citizens have no say in who represents them and their

Between 1980 and 2014 the number of incarcerated people in the United States quadrupled from 500,000 to approximately 2.3 million. At any given time, the United state incarcerates one percent of its population while another two percent are under extended supervision (Wakefield and Uggen 2010). In addition, the United States has faced a dramatic increase in its homeless and housing insecure population since the 1980s (Herbert, Morenoff, and Harding 2015). Reasons include a decline in affordable housing, foreclosure, poverty, eroding work opportunities, and also laws restricting certain populations from housing. This paper will address past and current challenges related to reentry, recidivism, and housing by analyzing relevant empirical research.

This research paper is focused on released convicts and the struggles they face to become active, progressive members of society. Sadly, these released offenders regularly face discrimination in their job searches, in attempts to secure housing for themselves and their families, and to be accepted by their communities. Without the right support structures in place upon their release, these former prisoners may very well fall back into lives of crime. Without a suitable place to stay, these released offenders may become recidivists, falling back into their familiar roles as law breakers, if only to provide the basic necessities for themselves and their

This article connects to what Michelle Alexander spoke about in her interview because it extends off of this concept of degradation as a result of being criminals. Specifically, it connects to the high rate of incarceration that exists in the U.S, and this text gives us more explicit information about the population sizes of those who have or have not been convicted of a crime. Those who have been labeled as a criminal are viewed differently and often degraded as a person because of their title as a criminal. According to Michelle Alexander, many people say "Well, that’s just not a big deal. So you can’t vote. What’s the problem with that?” Denying someone the right to vote says to them: “You are no longer one of us. You’re not a citizen. Your

Thesis: Many people argue that ex-convicts should be labeled as criminals after time behind bars. Once a felon had paid his or her debt to society employment for ex-convicts shouldn’t be as difficult, voting rights should be regained, and with certain agreements accomplished to restore some freedom rights back, some ex-convicts should be allowed a second chance in society.

What is a social stigma? A social stigma is disapproval of a person or group based on characteristic grounds that are perceived, and serve to distinguish them. The social stigma of race is a worldwide problem, in which I think everyone I have encountered has had some kind of racial slur thrown at him or her. Living on the Cheyenne Reservation this is one critical issue among everyone, including elders and teens.

“Rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others”…Thomas Jefferson. When getting a “second chance many citizens that have a criminal background are not awarded the same opportunity as those that have not been so unfortunate. Statistics has always shown that the employment of ex offenders, especially male offenders is considerably low compared to those of non-offenders. In 2008 it was reported, “one in 33 working-age adults was an ex-prisoner and about one in 15 working-age adults was an ex-felon. About one in 17 adult men of working-age was an ex-prisoner and about one in 8 was an ex-felon.

hiring. Employers’ willingness to hire ex-offenders is also influenced by the type of industry and position, the type and severity of crime committed by the job applicant, and work experience since release from prison. In many states, the easy availability of criminal history data may also present a barrier to employment. The focus group research found that the employers believed that an applicant with a criminal background is less appealing than an applicant that has never been convicted of a crime. That means that ex-offenders will have a more difficult time finding gainful employment. Many of the employers did not want to become the first ones to hire an ex-convict after being found guilty of a crime.

According to Goffman, stigma refers to any undesirable or discrediting characteristics, constituted by the variance between one's virtual and actual social identity. Goffman classifies stigma into three distinct categories. One type of stigma he outlines is referred to as abominations of the body, which constitutes various physical deformities. Another type is tribal stigma, which are those stigma that can be inherited through lineages and equally contaminate members of that lineage. The third type of stigma that Goffman proposes is blemishes of individual character, which refers to those stigma that are more difficult to detect from merely looking at an individual, ranging from addiction struggles to mental illness. A blemish of character

The belief in a new beginning is a tenet of religions morals and ethics, which allows sinners to repent and be fully redeemed, to be reborn. The idea that people deserve a second chance is an important value in life, few times a lot of young men and women even grown adult make certain mistakes whether due to economic circumstances, immaturity, lack of adult mentor guidance or simple peer pressure. Sadly, most of them could have done something meaningful with their lives, if given the chance to prove themselves. As humans, we seek insights into our failings so we can learn to overcome them and achieve a new start, cause as we all know, no one is perfect.

Social stigma is the extreme disapproval of a person or group of people. There are three components of social stigma, stereotypes, prejudice and discrimination. A stereotype is a widely known belief of a group of people, but just because it is known by many is does not mean that everyone agrees with it. (Yip)” Prejudice often leads to discrimination, why? Because it begins with normally negative thoughts about a certain person or group which then leads to an emotional response, many times these emotional responses are what lead to discrimination which is the reaction by way of behavior of a person. Social stigma is very much connected to self-stigma because self-stigma wouldn’t exist if it weren’t for the social responses. Self-stigma can be very harming to a person. Typically there are three paths that a person will take. He or she will either be angered by it and fight to change it, which means that they get involved in organizations and such things to bring more awareness to the issue. Another is a person whose self-esteem suffers; this unfortunately can lead to other problems like depression and other forms of anxiety. And third are the people that show a sort of indifference. They do not get angry but they also do not seem

Stigma as a Process by Which the Reaction of Others Spoils Normal Identity The American sociologist, Erving Goffman, introduced into sociological discourse the notion of stigma. Stigma was used by the Greeks to mean a bodily sign inflicted upon a person to mark them as outcasts from normal society. However, due to Goffman's work, stigma has come to mean any "condition, attribute or trait which marks an individual as culturally unacceptable or 'inferior'" (Scambler 1991:186).

Instead of expecting individual ex-offenders to navigate their transitions back into their communities without help, the legal community needs to give them the tools that might better guarantee success. At a minimum, ex-offender will need a point of entry where they can seek assistance ranging from information about what they can expect to more specific representational assistance particularly in the areas of employment, housing, and family law. Through coordinating the types of interventions that ex-offenders tend to need, these individuals might be less likely to fall through the cracks. As important, this type of coordination will necessitate a fundamental shift in how lawyers engaged in civil and criminal public interest practices conceive

According to (Jonathan Gabe, 2004) Goffman (1963) defines stigma as an attribute that is deeply discrediting and reduces the person being stigmatized from a whole person to a tainted and discounted one. He further makes a distinction between the types of stigma. Stigma of the body is what you can physically see for example a deformity on someone’s face, stigma of someone’s character which you can’t necessarily see like someone being a criminal and last being