Last October, when Renita Parker organized the Higher Heights Job Fair in Newport News, she hoped to hook up ex-offenders with decent jobs. Parker is co-founder of Good Seed, Good Ground, a local advocacy group that believes one way to reduce violence in the community is to give ex-offenders who’ve paid their debt to society a means to mainstream.
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Studies show reintegration works. That ex-offenders who aren’t denied work or a place to live are far less likely to re-offend. But Parker is learning that society, in general, doesn’t care about such studies. It doesn’t care about common sense or compassion. Employers are still loath to hire someone with a record, even for a nonviolent offense. In fact, in Virginia an employer can refuse to hire someone who’s only been arrested on the mere suspicion of committing a crime.
Ex-offenders are often denied welfare assistance and student loans. Landlords don’t want to rent to them.One client, Parker says, was evicted from the apartment he’d lived in for years — not because of some new offense, but because the complex was renovated and the new management didn’t want an ex-offender for a tenant.
Even clients who’ve been out of prison for decades are being denied work and housing. "How long do they have to pay?"
Posted on January 17, 2011
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