A CATCH-22 FOR EX-OFFENDERS

As the Bush administration focuses attention on ex-offenders with its
modest program to help them return to the community, an eye-opening
new study shows that the effort will require a lot more than re-entry
programs. Not only do all 50 states continue to punish and marginalize
convicts after they leave jail, but most also have laws that punish
millions of people for crimes for which they were never convicted.

The new study, from the Legal Action Center, a criminal justice policy
group, identifies laws in all 50 states that hamper former offenders'
ability to re-enter society. These excessively punitive laws, which
must be modified or repealed before ex-convicts have a real chance at
jobs, homes and mainstream lives, bar them from scores of professions
that require state licenses but are unrelated to their crimes.

The study, which will soon be available on the Web, ranks the states
based on the stringency of laws that bar former offenders from whole
professions, or strip them of driver's licenses, parental rights and
the right to vote.

Colorado, South Carolina, Georgia and Virginia are rated worst, which
means that ex-offenders in those states have the least chance of
becoming productive citizens. In some states, a person who commits a
vehicle-related crime as a teenager can go to college and grow into
adulthood, only to be barred from, say, the real estate business,
which requires a state license.

A similar brand of punishment is being used against people who have
been arrested on suspicion of crimes for which they were never
convicted. Thirty-seven states permit prospective employers and all
state licensing agencies to ask about and weigh arrests that never led
to conviction. In addition, employers in most states can simply fire
anyone who is discovered to have a criminal record, regardless of the
circumstance.

Congress worsened matters during the 1990's with a series of new laws
that use federal aid to punish former offenders and arrestees. One of
the most damaging laws withholds highway funds from states that do not
punish drug offenders by suspending their driver's licenses -- whether
or not the original offense had anything to do with a car.

Many states were smart enough to opt out of this law. But 27 actually
revoke or suspend driver's licenses of some or all drug offenders.
Those who leave prison in desperate need of jobs cannot legally drive
to work, to school or to drug treatment programs. In states where
public transportation is nonexistent, ex-convicts have no choice but
to risk returning to prison by driving illegally.

This country only harms itself when it traps ex-offenders at the
margins of society and forces them back into prison.