Thanks to the Chicago Sun-Times for its progressive editorial, "Honest Work Beats Ex-Cons on the Dole." While many media outlets have made the case, in recent months, for removing barriers to employment for those all-too-human of us who have transgressed the law, none have made it more directly and unequivocally, as evidenced in the editorial's very first two sentences:
The fastest way to make sure an ex-con turns to crime again is to deny him any chance
at a job. If he can't get honest work, nobody should be surprised when he returns to
dishonest work.
Such simple reasoning most often goes unacknowledged in the peripatetic public discussion about the outrageously high recidivism rates throughout the country. Apparently, most of us would rather preserve the option of routinely dumping our accumulated bile upon those we can habitually impugn with near-universal approval, than support the sound public policy of fair employment and career opportunities for ex-offenders.
In a society that purportedly values the acceptance of responsibility, and trumpets the dignity of work, the systemic exclusion of ex-offenders from the economic mainstream amounts to an irresponsible denial of the dignity of those most fallible of mortals among us. Among a people that insists on the power and necessity of faith, and redemption, the disconnect between the real and the ideal belies our most humble words of prayer.
The fastest way to make sure an ex-con turns to crime again is to deny him any chance
at a job. If he can't get honest work, nobody should be surprised when he returns to
dishonest work.
Such simple reasoning most often goes unacknowledged in the peripatetic public discussion about the outrageously high recidivism rates throughout the country. Apparently, most of us would rather preserve the option of routinely dumping our accumulated bile upon those we can habitually impugn with near-universal approval, than support the sound public policy of fair employment and career opportunities for ex-offenders.
In a society that purportedly values the acceptance of responsibility, and trumpets the dignity of work, the systemic exclusion of ex-offenders from the economic mainstream amounts to an irresponsible denial of the dignity of those most fallible of mortals among us. Among a people that insists on the power and necessity of faith, and redemption, the disconnect between the real and the ideal belies our most humble words of prayer.
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