Redemption in an Era of Widespread Criminal Background Checks

In my continuing work in juvenile justice I recently came across an issue I would like to shine a light on. As Americans, we are working hard as a nation of states to prevent people who were ever arrested for a crime (not convicted, just arrested) from getting a job. Especially black people.

We want ex-offenders to work, to provide for their families, and to pay taxes, right?

Here are the first few paragraphs from an interesting article on the subject. (The full article is here:  http://www.nij.gov/journals/270/criminal-records.htm )

"I am writing this letter…out of desperation and to tell you a little about the struggles of re-entering society as a convicted felon." The letter came from a 30-year-old man who — in 2003, at age 21 — lost control of his car after a night of drinking, killing his close friend. "Jay" was convicted of involuntary manslaughter and sentenced to 38 months in state prison.

"I have worked hard to turn my life around. I have remained clean for nearly eight years, I am succeeding in college, and I continue to share my story in schools, treatment facilities and correctional institutions, yet I have nothing to show for it. … I have had numerous interviews and sent out more than 200 resumes for jobs which I am more than qualified. I have had denial after denial because of my felony." Jay ends the letter saying, "I do understand that you are not responsible for the choices that have brought me to this point. Furthermore, I recognize that if I was not abiding by the law, if I was not clean, and if I was not focusing my efforts toward a successful future, I would have no claim to make."

Jay's story is not unusual.

The article goes into an interesting study which is underway. Some of the preliminary findings of Blumstein and Nakamura are presented in their article: “Redemption in an Era of Widespread Criminal Background Checks”.

http://nij.ncjrs.gov/multimedia/video-nijconf2009-blumstein-nakamura.htm

Here are some highlights:

• 80 percent of U.S. employers perform criminal background checks on prospective employess.
• Recidivism declines steadily with time clean.
• For 18 year olds arrested in 1980 for robbery, the hazard rate for re-arrest declined to the same arrest rate as the general population in 7.7 years.
• For arrest for burglary it took less time, 3.8 years.
• For arrest for aggravated assault it took 4.3 years.

So our state laws should reflect this. Criminal records should be closed to employers after a certain time period so ex offenders can get jobs.

So what can you do?  Work to identify and change the laws in your state which are barriers to employment for people whose risk to reoffend is lower than the general populations’.

Monitor your state legislature, mayor and governor and work to prevent them from enacting knee-jerk, “tough on crime” laws which only hurt poor people and people of color.

If nothing else, pass this information on to your friends and acquaintances.

Thanks for reading this blog.

Rob

"The Alaska Rob Blog gratefully acknowledges the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, National Institute of Justice, for allowing us to reproduce, in part or in whole, the video Criminal Background Checks and Hiring Ex-Offenders. The opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this video are those of the speaker(s) and do not necessarily represent the official position or policies of the U.S. Department of Justice."

Interstate

Interesting section from "The Writer's Almanac" by Garrison Keillor.  This all came about during my lifetime...


It was on this day in 1956 that President Eisenhower signed the Federal Highway Act, which established the Interstate Highway System.

The Interstate Highway System had been in the works for a while. During World War I, the Army determined that the condition of national roads needed to be improved for national defense, so they produced a map for the government of the major routes they felt were important in the event of war. In 1938, President Roosevelt drew out a map of "superhighways" to cross the country.

The American public had its first taste of the a "superhighway" system in 1939, at the New York World's Fair. The most popular exhibit there was the General Motors Futurama ride, which showed a vision of the future in 1960. Fairgoers sat in chairs that moved through a diorama of the future America, where everyone owned a car and the entire country was connected by freeways. On these freeways, the lanes going in one direction were separated from the traffic coming from the other direction. Drivers could go up to 50 mph, and could travel from one coast to the other without a single traffic light. These ideas were so exciting that 28,000 people attended the Futurama exhibit every day.

As a general during World War II, Eisenhower was impressed by Germany's autobahn system, and he decided that the United States needed something comparable. After the war, the economy was booming, and Eisenhower decided the time was right to push through the Interstate Highway System. It was the largest public works project in American history. It took longer than expected to build—35 years instead of 12—and it cost more than $100 billion, about three times the initial budget. But the first coast-to-coast highway, Interstate 80, was completed in 1986, running from New York City to San Francisco.

It was a great boon for hotel and fast-food chains, which sprung up by interstate exits. It was also a boon for suburban living, since commuting was faster and easier than before.

But it was not necessarily good for American literature. When John Steinbeck took a cross-country trip with his dog and wrote Travels with Charley (1962), he only traveled on the interstate for one section, on I-90 between Erie, Pennsylvania, and Chicago, Illinois. He wrote: "These great roads are wonderful for moving goods but not for inspection of a countryside. You are bound to the wheel and your eyes to the car ahead and to the rear-view mirror for the car behind and [...] at the same time you must read all the signs for fear you may miss some instructions or orders. No roadside stands selling squash juice, no antique stores, no farm products or factory outlets. When we get these thruways across the whole country, as we will and must, it will be possible to drive from New York to California without seeing a single thing."

Jack Kerouac wrote On the Road in 1951, and by the time it was published, in 1957, construction had begun on the Interstate Highway System. In 1969, shortly before his death, Kerouac said: "You can't do what I did any more. I tried in 1960, and I couldn't get a ride. Cars going by, kids eating ice cream, people with hats with long visors driving, and, in the backseat, suits and dresses hanging. No room for a bum with a rucksack."

William Least Heat-Moon wrote Blue Highways (1982) about the cross-country trip he took after losing his job and separating from his wife. He took only back roads. He wrote: "Life doesn't happen along interstates. It's against the law."

When I Am Among the Trees

When I Am Among the Trees

by Mary Oliver

When I am among the trees,
especially the willows and the honey locust,
equally the beech, the oaks and the pines,
they give off such hints of gladness.
I would almost say that they save me, and daily.

I am so distant from the hope of myself,
in which I have goodness, and discernment,
and never hurry through the world
     but walk slowly, and bow often.

Around me the trees stir in their leaves
and call out, "Stay awhile."
The light flows from their branches.

And they call again, "It's simple," they say,
"and you too have come
into the world to do this, to go easy, to be filled
with light, and to shine."



"When I Am Among the Trees" by Mary Oliver, from Thirst. © Beacon Press, 2006.

The good old days at home sweet home

The good old days at home sweet home by Marge Piercy On Monday my mother washed. It was the way of the world, all those lines of sheets flapping in the narrow yards of the neighborhood, the pulleys stretching out second and third floor windows. Down in the dank steamy basement, wash tubs vast and grey, the wringer sliding between the washer and each tub. At least every year she or I caught a hand in it. Tuesday my mother ironed. One iron was the mangle. She sat at it feeding in towels, sheets, pillow cases. The hand ironing began with my father's underwear. She ironed his shorts. She ironed his socks. She ironed his undershirts. Then came the shirts, a half hour to each, the starch boiling on the stove. I forgot bluing. I forgot the props that held up the line clattering down. I forgot chasing the pigeons that shat on her billowing housedresses. I forgot clothespins in the teeth. Tuesday my mother ironed my father's underwear. Wednesday she mended, darned socks on a wooden egg. Shined shoes. Thursday she scrubbed floors. Put down newspapers to keep them clean. Friday she vacuumed, dusted, polished, scraped, waxed, pummeled. How did you become a feminist interviewers always ask, as if to say, when did this rare virus attack your brain? It could have been Sunday when she washed the windows, Thursday when she burned the trash, bought groceries hauling the heavy bags home. It could have been any day she did again and again what time and dust obliterated at once until stroke broke her open. I think it was Tuesday when she ironed my father's shorts. "The good old days at home sweet home" by Marge Piercy, fromColors Passing Through Us. © Alfred A. Knopf, 2003.

Best of the Web ~ March 25, 2012

QUOTATIONS

“There are two ideas of government. There are those who believe that, if you will only legislate to make the well-to-do prosperous, their prosperity will leak through on those below. The Democratic idea, however, has been that if you legislate to make the masses prosperous, their prosperity will find its way up through every class which rests up on them."  William Jennings Bryant

“There ought to be one day - just one - when there is open season on senators.” ~ Will Rogers

Linguistics is where it is at

http://youtu.be/blDM-ibezJQ The Lord’s Prayer in Old English

WHY THERE IS STUMBLE UPON

http://www.onecoolthingaday.com/today/?currentPage=3

www.mapsofwar.com/images/EMPIRE17.swf    3,000 years of Middle Eastern history in 90 seconds

SMILE FOR A WHILE

The Onion News has TV listings!  http://www.theonion.com/features/tv-listings/

Literally Unbelievable is a website dedicated to posting Facebook pages of people who believe Onion News stories are true.   http://literallyunbelievable.org/post/17153265749/how-exactly-did-you-get-elected

VIDEO OF THE WEEK

World’s Largest Rope Swing  http://youtu.be/4B36Lr0Unp4  (Human beings can be so fun!)

ENGINEERS RULE THE WORLD

A fountain in Dubai http://www.wimp.com/dubaifountain/  (Wimp dot com has interesting videos)

SONG

http://youtu.be/Ynttgx6lNL4 Gaia by James Taylor

A POEM FOR YOU

Carol

My grandmother, Carol, kept a jar of water in the refrigerator. She remembered the iceman and felt that ice water was quite the luxury. She kept a dish of chocolates on her shelf in the kitchen. I always liked going to see her, she was always kind.

            I thought that every grandmother kept chocolates and a jar of ice water. I used to think everyone had a kindly Carol, and that she had always been old, always kindly and always with chocolates.

            Tonight I remembered her when I put a jar of water in the fridge. My grandchildren are seven and four. I never had put up ice water before. But there are chocolates in a bowl, and if they want to eat them, I say Yes! You may. Have another!

Help abolish the death penalty

When we look back in time to 150 years ago, we wonder how Americans could have condoned slavery. How could we have been so cruel and wrong in our thinking, in our everyday lives?

When we look back on 2012 from 150 years from now we will feel the same way about imprisoning huge numbers of people, and even allowing our government employees to murder them. We will ask, "How could we have been so wrong in our thinking" and we will agree that reforming our justice system was painful but necessary. 

I oppose the death penalty and hope to persuade you to also. If you already oppose the death penalty, feel free to share this and try to persuade them, and skip ahead to the last paragraph for suggestions about actions you can take.

I read a good article in Sojourners Magazine today (you have to register for free).  As the author notes, the pragmatic arguments to oppose the death penalty are simple: 

• Capital punishment is not a deterrent to crime. 
• Death sentences are disproportionately handed down to people of color, or to people convicted of killing someone white. 
• It is a staggeringly expensive process for states.

But 6 out of every 10 people in America believe that it is necessary and just for the government to murder our fellow citizens.  60%.

Some people think that murder victims, (survivors, family, loved ones) feel better, get "closure" because of the death penalty. Most say that they simply do not. Can you imagine losing a loved one to murder, then getting over it? Survivors have to live for decades while legal hearings continue and they are called on again and again to testify about the pain caused by the murder of their loved ones. Would a sentence of life without parole and no more hearings provide better opportunities for healing?

We all know our government makes mistakes. 140 people have been freed from death row after having been found innocent. 

Public opinion is changing in favor of abolishing the death penalty. As the article says" the voices of innocent people nearly put to death for crimes they did not commit are ultimately what will turn the tide against the death penalty: “That’s what’s beginning to create the change of opinion. When the punishment is irreversible, nothing but perfection is acceptable. We can certainly improve the system, but we can never guarantee that we can make the system perfect.”

So please join me by working in your state to abolish the death penalty. Share these articles or this blog. Attend meetings of people who also want to abolish it. Write letters to your political leaders and local newspapers. Talk to people in your church and community. 

Be part of the wave of people working to end this medieval abomination. 

Today's Doonesbury

My views are pro-life, pro-choice, and anti-death penalty, and this is funny in a funny-because-it's-true way.