From Brennan Center for Justice:
Less than two years ago, while combating the worst wildfires in its history, California enlisted the help of nearly 2,000 imprisoned people to serve as firefighters. Professionally trained and serving in the same way as other seasonal firefighters, many of them worked long hours on the front lines, clearing tinder brush and trees with chainsaws and hand tools to halt the flames.
But until a recent change in a long-standing law, this firefighting experience would have had precisely zero utility for most of these people after their release from prison. As criminal offenders, they would have been barred for life from becoming licensed emergency responders. And the people of California would have been deprived of their experience, their skill, and their bravery.
Yes, the law was finally changed — but that made only the tiniest dent in the forbidding edifice of more than 45,000 state and local laws and regulations that have profound ramifications for American society: the social exclusion that arises from the “collateral consequences” of mass incarceration. Roughly 600,000 people leave prisons every year hoping that their punishment has ended, only to encounter a combination of laws, rules, and biases forming barriers that block them from jobs, housing, and fundamental participation in our political, economic, and cultural life. Continue reading >>>
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