When you’re doing time in our nation’s penitentiaries, having some type of hope is paramount for your sanity. But even when out of prison and doing the right thing, an ex-con can be a target. To law enforcement, an ex-offender out in the world is considered “the usual suspect” or “the one with the record.” This blemish on their record of life can obstruct forward motion, holding an ex-prisoner back from opportunities, even after they served their debt to society.
Rodney White is a 51-year-old ex-felon. He got out on February 21, 2007 after serving fifteen and a half years in federal prison for conspiracy to distribute cocaine, crack and heroin. The Richmond, Virginia native spent three months in a halfway house and three months under house arrest to complete his sentence. Once he was out, he got a bachelor’s degree in Liberal Arts and Paralegal Studies from the University of Richmond and a master’s in Adult Education from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University. He has completely turned his life around, but the stigma of being an ex-con is still there.
“It’s not until I think about at least three jobs that I know I was refused—and two that I know I was refused an interview for—because I have a criminal record, that I become frustrated and motivated to create change,” Rodney tells The Fix. “This is important to me because various states automatically give ex-offenders/returning citizens their rights back, while in other states like Virginia, a returning citizen must go through a special process. It’s such an obstacle that if I moved back to Virginia today, I wouldn’t be able to automatically vote even though I’ve voted in elections in North Carolina. I’d have to ask the governor of Virginia to restore my rights.”
The obstacles that ex-cons have to face when they return to society are innumerable. From discrimination to employment, credit and housing problems to law enforcement profiling, it’s definitely an uphill battle. As President Obama slowly overhauls the criminal justice system, trying to make it easier for ex-cons to reintegrate, the plight and stigma of the ex-offender is being recognized—but is recognition enough?
“The ‘ban the box‘ movement is great,” Rodney tells The Fix. “But I will not be happy until I see that private companies are hiring returning citizens and all drug offenders can get Pell Grants again. Correcting the reentry problem in America will de-stigmatize returning citizens and make the process easier. We hold 5% of the world’s population, but 25% of the prisoners, with 2.2 million people behind bars. We are not coping well right now because many of the people locked up in the ’90s are starting to come home in record numbers.”
The Department of Justice announced in the spring that it won’t be referring to returning citizens as “felons” or “convicts” anymore because the “disparaging labels” exist as a “psychological barrier to reintegration.” Recognizing that the negative labels attached to people—be it ex-con or ex-addict—can lead to recidivism and perpetuate a cycle of crime is the first step in welcoming returning citizens home. When a prisoner serves time in the penitentiary for breaking the law, he shouldn’t still be punished after his sentence is completed. With hundreds of thousands of drug war prisoners coming home every year, a little forgiveness is in order.