Obtaining employment with a felony conviction is next to impossible these days, especially with a heightened alert of terrorism at home and abroad. While many have paid their debt to society, the shadow of conviction stays with that person, no matter how many years they’ve been on the good side of the law. They just can’t seem to catch a break.
A felony conviction will limit your ability to the types of work you can do and the odds of being hired don’t get any better either. As the years pass by after a conviction, one may find it hard to disclose the information if asked about it on an employment application. Lying about it not only wastes the employers time, but yours as well. Don’t risk losing a job you possibly could have gotten just because you didn’t want to be truthful about a bad past. There is that small chance you could be hired.
Look, people make mistakes. It shouldn’t have to haunt them for the remainder of their lives. The ones who learn from their mistakes are the ones who suffer the most, because they’re trying to fit back into society and are pushed out the door. There should be some kind of program available for felons with a few good years to show since they were last convicted. There are really good people out there who deserve a second chance. This kid in the neighborhood has been doing good for 12 years now and he is still treated as though he committed the crime that day. It’s horrible. Not only is he suffering from landing a good paying job, but he also lost his right to vote, own a firearm, get financial assistance to go to school, adopt a kid, join the military and the list goes on! I pray for him every day.
Even though felony convictions can be made to go away, some are just harder than others. Employers should only be required to check back so many years, as this would give the deserving few a break in the life long struggle associated with being a convicted felon. The government needs to come up with a plan to change the way the system handles felony records. A conviction, non violent nor drug-related, should be examined by when the actual crime took place, how long ago it was and how the individual has lived their life in between. There needs to be a law in place that can give these individuals a second chance at life. A chance to go back to school and get a good paying career, maybe even join the military. Otherwise, employment for convicted felons will be nothing but low-paying, no career path jobs, with no future.