By Aaron Allen, The Seattle Medium
Following the failed experiments with mass incarceration and overcriminalization brought on by the Nixon administration and exacerbated by the Clinton administration, an estimated 70 million to 100 million Americans now have some type of criminal record, according to What’s Next Washington (WNW).
Felony records carry a stigma and in the digital age a record, no matter how old or minor, can stand in the way of economic stability and full involvement in society for a lifetime.
WNW, an organization of formerly incarcerated individuals and allies working to improve the ability of people with conviction histories to reintegrate into society and achieve long-term economic stability, believes that “every person has a right to a life of dignity and the right to full participation in society.”
Working with business and public agencies to change regulations and public policies, WNW looks to put an end to the endless cycle of disenfranchisement experienced by many formerly incarcerated individuals.
“We challenge a system that keeps [formerly incarcerated individuals] locked out,” says Susan Mason, Executive Director of What’s Next Washington. “We work with employers and other private sector partners to change their laws and their rules and policies, to remove the barriers that stay in place for decades after a conviction.”
“Most of the people in the nation that have a conviction history are long past contact with the criminal legal system,” Mason continued. “So, currently there are 70 million of us and 63 million plus have no further contact. They are not in prison or jail, they are not on probation or parole, yet we can still be denied housing, employment, education, not eligible for loans for business and this can last for life.”
The spread and increase of criminal background checks and the rise in the share of the population encumbered with the stigma of a record which has reached 1 in 3 adults in the U.S., which advocates claim has become a major driver of racial inequality and poverty.
Data shows that four in 5 landlords, nine in 10 employers and 3 in 5 colleges and universities now use background checks to screen out applicants with criminal records.
“We live in society that won’t employ people with conviction histories,” says Mason. “They’ve paid the fine, or they did the jail time or prison time and they have moved on. So, that person can apply for a job and be told “no” solely because of the background check, solely because they have a conviction and that can happen for decades.”
“You apply for an apartment, you’ve got the job, you’ve got the references, the ability to pay, they say “yes” you can have the apartment, but we are going to pull a background. They see that you had a prior crime however long ago, 3,5, 20 years ago and they can just deny you even though you are otherwise qualified,” continued Mason. “One can be tied to this thing for life.”
Often called “collateral consequences,” the resulting barriers to basic needs like housing, education, and employment disproportionately puts economic stability and upward mobility out of reach for tens of millions of individuals and families from communities of color who have been affected by the U.S. criminal legal system and these consequences feed recidivism, otherwise known as the “revolving door”.
WNW believes that people should be forgiven for their mistakes, especially people who have fully repaid their debt to society.
“This is the difference between moving on from a conviction or staying tied to it for the rest of your life,” says Mason. “Say, I have a financial setback and I declared bankruptcy, something financially terrible happened and I had to start over. I can move on from that. It may take me somewhere between two and seven years but if I worked hard and did everything I was supposed to do I could move on.”
“But not if you have conviction history, there is no end date,” says Mason. “There are a bunch of private sector opportunities that people with conviction histories cannot work in. You can’t work in energy, defense, you can’t get life insurance in some segments of the country because of convictions. This is a system that punishes perpetually, there is no end date. We want there to be an end date.”
A recent study by the Brennan Center found that people who have been incarcerated see their subsequent earnings reduced by an average of 52 percent, with an average lifetime earnings loss of nearly half a million dollars.
Michelle Alexander argued in her acclaimed book, The New Jim Crow, “mass incarceration and its often-lifelong collateral consequences serve as core underpinnings of the fabric of structural racism that defines much of 21st century American society. Black, Indigenous, and Latino people are disproportionately criminalized and more likely to have a record and be treated unfairly across society because of it.”
There are currently over 40,000 regulatory and licensing rules and policies that keep people with conviction histories out of multiple sectors in our economy. Out of the those 40 thousand, 30 thousand are restrictions on employment and those restrictions, 83 percent of them have no end date,” says Mason. “And that is what we are working on here at WNW. [We’re working] on changing those policies, those rules, those laws, those regulations so that we’re not locking so many people out.”
