In today’s BreakPoint commentary, Prison Fellowship CEO Jim Liske talks about some of the hurdles that ex-offenders must face, even after serving their sentences.
Certainly, conviction for certain violent crimes should serve as a bar for future employment in specific fields. No one would think it wise for a school to hire an ex-sex offender, even if that offender has completed his time behind bars. But what about someone who was arrested for drug possession over 25 years ago, and has been clean since 1988?
This was the case with Darrell Langdon, who applied for the job of boiler room engineer with the Chicago Public Shools. According to state law, Langdon was forbidden to work on school property because of his prior conviction, even though he had served his sentence and turned his life around.
In Langdon’s case, an exemption to the law was approved, and he was hired. For other ex-prisoners, however, previous convictions and youthful indiscretions can follow them around for life, making them unemployable.
Criminologists Alfred Blumstein and Kiminori Nakamura have suggested that one solution to this problem would be to make criminal records “expirable” after a certain period of good behavior. Is this a good idea? What other courses of action can be taken to ensure that others like Darrell Langdon can reintegrate with society, while maintaining public safety and good order?