Walking a Mile in their Shoes

This morning I had the opportunity to sit in on a meeting of the Diversity Roundtable, a nonprofit organization representing an assembly of some of Indiana's leading employers.  The Roundtable had invited input from various minority communities.

One issue I think we'll all hear about in the future related to employment issues surrounding people with felony convictions.  I'm more sympathetic to that issue than one might think of  a Republican, for I think that what in the suburbs or on college campuses is sometimes dismissed as youthful indiscretion, may in the inner city produce a criminal record.  And that criminal record may sometimes endure both as an excessive punishment for the individual and a burden to society, preventing otherwise decent individuals from getting employment which afterwards would keep them on the straight and narrow.

To those conservatives who might understandably be skeptical of such concerns, I would cite the example of the President, beloved by conservatives (and on November 7th, by conservatives alone, it would seem.)  In dismissing a history of alcoholism and rumored cocaine use, President Bush says that when he was "young and irresponsible" he was "young  and irresponsible."  Had he been African American, living in the inner city, and without access to employment connections,  that youthful indiscretion might have been the end of his productivity and the beginning of a destructive life.    Obviously, many of his critics would  add a punch line to the above paragraph, as John Kerry attempted, but the point remains valid. 

While  it benefits society to punish youthful indiscretion to ensure that a youth venture  no further into crime, there is a limit to that punishment at which point  it becomes destructive to the individual and to the society that individual must rejoin.   Many struggling to regain their footing require support, and it is to our benefit to ensure they get it. 

Comments

[Mike Sylvester]

I am going to bookmark this blog and read it more often.

There is no doubt in my mind that you should be an Indiana Libertarian.

Mike Sylvester
Fort Wayne Libertarian

[Chris Douglas]

Mike, thank you for visiting; delighted to have your comments.

[scott r. jones]

I believe the felony conviction for smaller crimes is creating an unempoyable underclass larger than might be expected. Regardless of race or any minority status, felons are shunned from even dishwashing jobs in Indianapolis. It also appears that out-sourced Human Resource companies are identifiying alternative misdemeanor cases as felonies for employment purposes. This scarlet F may be attatched to a person for life as a result of a driving problem,(less than drunk driving) or a bad check in some circumstances. When our economy is driving new entrants into empoyment as service providers we seem to be erecting barriers even at that level and it is a dissapointment to those like myself who would wish opportunities to be available as an alternative to real criminal alternatives.

Scott Jones

[Chris Douglas]

Thank you for your comment, Scott.