Consider this all-too-real scenario:
John, a justice-impacted person, is released from custody after serving a court-ordered sentence. He is not on supervision, is alienated from all family ties, and has no support network to depend on.
He is released into a community without housing that accepts persons with criminal records, and employers are unwilling to hire anyone with a criminal past. There are no beds available at the local homeless shelters, and he is placed on a waiting list.
While he waits for a shelter bed, John is unemployed and forced to live on the street. He seeks out charities and programs to supply him with items for his basic needs, such as food, hygiene products, clothing, a sleeping bag, and a three-season tent.
He knows not to set up a tent on someone’s private property, so he finds discrete locations in parks or public areas like alleys or sidewalks.
The city where John lives has an ordinance penalizing camping on public land with fines and jail time. Eventually, John is arrested, found guilty of public camping, and sentenced to serve jail time (in my city, there have been competing proposals of one week of jail time and as much as six months of jail time).
John is released after serving his public camping sentence, and now his criminal record has new information. The few belongings he had before his arrest are gone, his place on the shelter waiting list was passed over, and the shelter is full.
John has to start the whole process over. He continues to be denied jobs and housing based on criminal background checks, so he is still unemployed and unhoused.
Once more, he is forced to camp in public spaces, but before a shelter bed opens, he is arrested, convicted of violating the public camping ordinance, and sentenced to time in jail.
Again.
Denying employment and housing to justice-impacted persons creates this hopeless cycle.
Under the current employment and housing laws, a Second Chance is highly unlikely for anyone who has been (or will be) justice-involved.
Comments by Bella