When it comes to criminal justice reform, reasonable conservatives, liberals, libertarians and tea party advocates should agree on at least some basic tenets of law. Once a convict has served his time and completes the legal requirements to be freed from prison, the debt to society is paid.
Conviction, especially for nonviolent crimes, must not automatically convert into a life sentence when ex-offenders seek employment, higher education or just a decent place to live. The tendency among employers and landlords, however, is to impose harsh rules that effectively deny ex-offenders any chance to get a fresh start.
A nationwide 鈥渂an the box鈥 movement seeks to drastically reduce the appearance of checkboxes asking applicants whether they have ever been convicted of a crime. We know of no faster way to drive a person back into a life of crime than for employers to reject ex-offenders automatically, just because they were honest and checked the box.
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Gov. Jay Nixon signed an executive order Monday directing state employers under executive-branch authority to remove questions about criminal history from job applications. According to the , 21 other states and more than 100 local governments already apply such rules.
The Missouri Department of Corrections says the state鈥檚 parolees suffered a 44 percent unemployment rate in 2015. Given the disproportionate rate of incarceration for African-Americans, automatic denial of housing and jobs to ex-offenders only adds to the hurdles in overcoming a history of racial discrimination, not to mention the added hardship inflicted on families and the greater community.
Nixon鈥檚 order follows other ban-the-box actions that include legislative efforts in from asking applicants about their criminal histories until after they鈥檝e been accepted as students. Last week, U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro issued a directive that private landlords could be found in violation of the Fair Housing Act if they enforce blanket bans on renting to ex-offenders.
The fact is, HUD itself applies . People who used public housing for drug dealing, for example, can automatically be rejected for certain forms of housing assistance. Sometimes even their families can be denied. Convicted pedophiles justifiably may not live within certain distances of schools or public parks.
Many Illinois college students worry that the proposed law could put them in greater danger on campus. Such concerns are real and must not be ignored.
It鈥檚 important, however, not to lump all ex-offenders together as being universally dangerous, undesirable and unworthy of a second chance. The goal must be to help ex-offenders turn their lives around, not shun them to the point of desperation, where they see no other option than to return to the activities that landed them in prison to begin with.
颁辞谤谤别肠迟颈辞苍:听An earlier version of this editorial misidentified the secretary of Housing and Urban Development.聽