Giving Former Convicts a Genuine Fresh Start

Re “Inmates’ ‘Do Not Pass Go’ Card,” by Alan Elsner, Commentary, Jan. 29: People with arrest records or misdemeanor convictions face a life of staying in the shadows. For some reason, no matter how much effort is applied to making a change in someone’s life, our society chooses to dwell on the negative and document it accordingly. It is, in effect, a life sentence. What a crushing weight to bear.

Take away hope from people and you get despair. People with nothing to lose or live for become more of a problem to society. I propose that mistakes (debts to society) be paid in full and then, after a certain period, your record is erased forever. I would aptly name this program Operation Fresh Start. Let us judge people in the moment and on their results rather than on something that happened years ago. If we refuse to correct this injustice, we then sentence ourselves to a time bomb waiting to go off.

Richie Naggar

Riverside

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Elsner points out just how hard it is to think beyond labels. Encounter someone called “ex-convict” and it becomes impossible for us to think rationally or to respond with any sense of humanity. Half of those coming out of our state prisons are functionally illiterate. Few have any money or job prospects. Denied the education and help that a more rational public policy might provide, they are recycled back to prison, where we spend $900 million a year to house those we refuse to assist. While in the community, and unable to support themselves, many will live on the streets. We will turn away, wondering, what’s wrong with “them”?

Leonard Schneiderman

Prof. Emeritus, Public Policy

and Social Research, UCLA