The Real Cost of Prisons Weblog

Federal regulations that went into effect in January are aimed at preventing ex-cons convicted of serious crimes from driving gasoline tankers or other trucks carrying hazardous materials.

Following Sept. 11, the government also imposed regulations at the nation's airports evicting convicted felons who were working at airport shoeshine stands or as baggage handlers. The airports cite federal rules prohibiting them from giving airport identification badges to felons.

Criminologists say the restrictions are misguided and will drive felons back into lives of crime.

Marc Mauer, assistant director of the Sentencing Project, a Washington think tank that follows criminal-justice issues, said the laws are taking jobs away from people who served time for their mistakes and have since put their lives back together.

"You have lots of felons who were convicted 20 years ago and who haven't been involved in a crime since," he said.

Mauer said he agrees with laws that prohibit sex offenders from working in day-care centers. But he said many states have laws forbidding felons from working as barbers, and one state won't permit former felons to work as asbestos-removers.

Depending on state laws, a felony conviction can prevent a person from voting, getting professional licenses as Realtors or ophthalmologists, adopting a child, selling alcohol or being involved in racing cars or horses. Congress passed a law in 1998 to prevent ex-cons from getting Pell Grants, the largest federal loan program that students use to finance education.

Margaret Love, a Washington attorney who is writing a book on the "collateral sanctions" that come with sentences, said denying felons certificates to drive hazmat trucks or work in airports provides no additional protection against terrorism.

"We're giving more and more, and harsher and harsher, penalties, and then we're hitting these people with these additional disabilities. We've taken away the social net so these people can't get welfare benefits, and now this. We just hate these people. We just hate them," she said.

Love said she is hearing from state parole boards that the number of people seeking pardons for their crimes is increasing as former convicts seek to avoid being hit with continuing penalties for their convictions.

"I think this is a really serious problem," she said.

Bush says he is concerned about helping felons get productive jobs, and in his State of the Union address to Congress last year proposed a $300 million "prison re-entry initiative" that would ease the 600,000 people released from prison each year back into work. "America is the land of the second chance — and when the gates of the prison open, the path ahead should lead to a better life," Bush said.

Rep. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, last year introduced the "second chance bill" that would have carried out the program, but Congress did not act on it. A Portman aide said the congressman is reintroducing the measure in this Congress.

An estimated 14 million Americans have felony records. Justice Department statistics indicate that about half of the men released from prison are charged with another crime within three years of release, and about 41 percent go back behind bars.

The job opportunities for those who don't go back to crime are narrowing.

The Department of Homeland Security says conviction of major felonies such as murder and racketeering will mean that truck drivers won't get certifications, but convictions of some crimes like arson will be decided on a case-by-case basis.

"There's no question about it, we're becoming a more punitive society," said University of Baltimore criminologist Jeffrey Ross. He said employers are conducting criminal background checks for relatively menial blue-collar jobs and increasingly refusing to hire anyone whose background is suspect.

Obtaining clemency for past crimes is also becoming rarer. The American Bar Association says governors are increasingly reluctant to exercise their powers of pardon because of the possible toxic political consequences.

A survey by the American Bar Association found a marked dropoff in post-sentence presidential pardons, which are given to people who have been tried, convicted, served their full sentences and then led law-abiding lives for five years.

From Franklin D. Roosevelt's presidency through Jimmy Carter's, an average of more than 200 people each year were granted some form of presidential clemency. But beginning with the tough-on-crime policies, President Ronald Reagan pardoned only about 200 in each of his four-year terms. President George H.W. Bush pardoned 77 during his four years in office, while Bill Clinton was the first president to wait until his second term in office before issuing 457 presidential pardons, most of which came in his last year and stirred threats of congressional investigations.

During his time in office, George W. Bush has issued 31 pardons.

Article Last Updated: 1/29/2005 06:44 AM