SSDI For Felons? Well, Makes Sense To Me

Anyone who has done the job search thing in this economy will tell you that it is very difficult to get a job now. But I tell you, it is even harder to get a job if you have a felony conviction on your background check. It is so to the point that it is virtually impossible to get a job so many unemployed or recently release felons will have a very difficult time finding work in today’s economy. That is why I think it would be a wise idea to offer SSDI or Employment Insurance to the newly released.

In the United States, there is an irrational fear of anyone who has anything on their criminal background. Instantly, even if you did not do the crime, you are immediately seen as an undesirable. Employers on websites like Craigslist either say things that are somewhat negative towards those with a criminal background to things that cannot be interpreted any other way than negative. It causes a lot of fear in the minds of employers, especially in the United States as opposed to other, more European, ideas that if you have done your time, then you deserve a second chance. Add in the natural discrimination that many Americans have (at the minimum, they fear felons and people in the LGBT community) and you can see the kind of troubles someone with a felony can have. In many cases, they cannot even get into an apartment. Just take a look at the quote below from Neal Lang of Tonti Properties in Texas, which shows just how eager Americans are to discriminate.

“We discriminate against them because we can,” says Neal Lang of Tonti Properties in Texas, which owns several properties in Colorado. “People with felonies have a bad track record and tend to attract other felons. It’s our basic co-policy to not accept them.”

The thing that we do think about when we debate this topic is the living expenses a person has. There is no public assistance programme that can help cover these expenses adequately. Unfortunately, we are denying felons the chance to make an honest wage and truly reform their lives, even if they are guilty. This country does not do second chances unfortunately, which is a shame because this country is touted as the land of the free. We should add an asterick to that and put *unless you have a criminal record, are a member of the LGBT community or anything arbitrary we may come up with. So the only way a felon can support themselves is through the public system unless we make changes to our views on felons and employment. Sure, you can tell a homeless person to “get a job”, but really now, can they?

One other thing people try to claim is that people who have felonies chose to do so and personally, I believe that is bullshit because of my own misdemeanor charge. People who have felonies may have been just victims of a messed up justice system. In a country where more people deny evolution than the people in all Western countries except for one, what do you expect other than fear when you hear the phrase “trial by jury”? While there are some genuinely guilty people in the correctional system, there are also innocents suffering in jail or with a felony. Unfortunately, we cannot reliably accept one’s claim that they are innocent because everyone convicted of a felony, regardless of whether they are truly guilty or not says that they are innocent. What is one to do in this situation?

Here is what I recommend that we do – we continue to respect the inherent worth and dignity of each individual. We think that while they might be guilty, in this country, there is also a good chance that they are not guilty. In this country, we have the best justice system that money can buy as evidenced by the trials of OJ Simpson and the late Michael Jackson. In this country, the likelihood of a verdict of not guilty correlates with how much you have in your bank account. This is nothing new, as the tale of Socrates and how he was sentenced to drink the hemlock because he was falsely charged with introducing new gods and corrupting the youth. However, if Socrates were alive today, would we judge him on his works which have advanced values in democracy or would we judge him based on the guilty verdict in court? Unfortunately, in this country, we would judge him on his conviction and not his merits.

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Tags: felons, Social Security, SSDI