I think most Americans believe that after you commit a crime and pay your debt to society,
the punishment ends.
You have the chance to rebuild your life and get a fresh start.
But the reality is much harsher.
We punish people with criminal records long after they’ve paid their debt to society.
And we all suffer for it.
Even simply being accused of a crime is just the beginning of “perpetual punishment”:
a cycle of legalized discrimination, poverty, and reincarceration; a cycle kept in motion
by 47,000 laws and regulations nationwide that restrict critical rights and opportunities.
After contact with the criminal justice system, millions of Americans are: denied employment
and housing, denied college educations, excluded from public benefits, separated from their
children, deported, despite being legal residents.
These restrictions trap the poor and people of color in invisible cages that extend far
beyond prison walls and criminal courts.
Cages that lead to a lifetime of obstacles that undermine even the most earnest efforts
at rehabilitation and redemption.
Cages that send the message: You will never be a part of society again.
This is not some isolated problem.
95% of all incarcerated people will return home at some point.
Each year, more than 600,000 people are released from jails and prisons.
That’s roughly the population of Boston or Seattle.
Millions more are completing non-jail sentences like probation, community service, or fines.
As a reentry specialist at Brooklyn Defender Services, a public defense firm representing
45,000 clients per year, I work on the front lines to help people with criminal histories
overcome their past and navigate the obstacles of their present, so they can build a sustainable
future.
I try to help folks take responsibility for their own lives.
But it’s hard to do when the outlook is so bleak.
Even for low-level offenses and misdemeanors, the aftermath of one individual’s experience
with the criminal justice system ripples out to entire families and neighborhoods, and
gets passed down from generation to generation.
The result: more poverty, more crime, more incarceration.
I see Javon, an 18-year-old young man who cannot live with or even visit his family,
and cannot find an affordable apartment, because he was convicted of gun possession and banned
from all public housing.
I see the dangerous shelters and street corners where he’ll sleep.
I worry about what he's going to have to do to survive; how long it’ll be before he’s
back behind bars.
I see how society loses when Judy, a 58-year-old grandmother charged with a misdemeanor, is
fired after her arrest and barred from her lifelong profession as a home health aide.
Unable to work, she’s faced with eviction and can’t support her family.
When Malik, a 26-year-old father, is denied the opportunity to further his education because
of the mistakes of his past, I think about how he and so many others are set up to fail.
How a conviction on a rap sheet is only a snapshot of a moment in time, when all of
us are dynamic, changing over time.
The criminal justice system disenfranchises these men and women, preventing them from
growing, from truly being free.
I am among the very few fortunate enough to be living a second chance.
Three decades ago, I was involved in a crime that took the life of another human being.
I spent over 24 years in prison for my role in that reprehensible crime.
While incarcerated, I had the chance to participate in a pilot program, offered to only 15 inmates,
that allowed me to pursue a formal education.
Upon release, I found an employer willing to look beyond my criminal record; one that
saw the hard lessons I learned in prison as an asset, not a liability.
Affording people a real opportunity to reenter society isn’t just good for individuals
and families; it’s good for all of us.
Meaningful reentry increases productivity, reduces poverty, and saves money.
Most importantly, it makes us safer, by eliminating the circumstances that perpetuate cycles of
crime and punishment.
People already get punished harshly by the system — but they should not receive a second
sentence that makes discriminating against them legal for the rest of their lives.
By restoring full rights of citizenship to people after they’ve been through the system,
we can start to end this cycle of perpetual punishment.
We can start to abolish the justice trap.