The logic apparently is, if minorities comic more crimes, and thus have criminal records, not hiring former criminals is a form of discrimination, and thus opens your company to a discrimination lawsuite unless you have re-evaled the ex-con, under special circumstances.

zomg those damned liberals!

This is actually a huge problem with our criminal justice system. Quite frankly, once you're released from prison, nobody should be able to access your criminal record.

This is asinine, and has nothing to do with any "problem" with our criminal justice system. Criminal records are public records because trials are public.

Past behavior is a predictor of future behavior. People have a right to freedom of association.

And no, no matter how many times you repeat it, this does not make every crime have a "life sentence". If other people don't want to hire you or associate with you because you're a felon, that's perfectly within their right. Getting released from prison does not somehow obligate everyone else to forget you ever did anything.

This always comes up, and if it were just a freedom of association thing I'd have no problem with it. The problem is that close to half of all existing jobs are legally barred to felons. Anything in healthcare, finance, law, or education, anything dealing with security bonding, and in some states any job where you are ever left alone with a customer. The employer can't decide that you've reformed and hire you anyway, it's illegal for him to do so.

Now, if private citizens don't want to work with a felon, they shouldn't be forced to.

Diamondeye, who's deciding it currently? It's not like the government has some expert panel that decides whether felons are reformed or not and then gives them clearance to work in those fields if they feel they are capable.

And it's interesting to see how quickly you're willing to ditch "freedom of association" when it goes the other way. Suddenly, we can't trust individuals to make these kinds of decisions because they might not be "qualified."

The big problem I have is that barring you from employment is punishment. These "rules" change constantly. Which means we are punishing people further after they have served their sentence. If you want to make it part of their sentence, fine. But you cannot keep punishing people for the same crime.

Now, if private citizens don't want to work with a felon, they shouldn't be forced to.

Barring people from certian jobs is not punishment.. and in any case, if there's lifelong "punishment" for all felons, so what? Just getting out of jail doesn't magically mean that punishment has to end there.

No, it doesn't. But, the punishment needs to be set at sentencing, not mutable per the whims of whomever is elected.

No, it doesn't. But, the punishment needs to be set at sentencing, not mutable per the whims of whomever is elected.

I don't see that this is a punishment.

There is no restriction of "rights" going on, and it was not imposed on the individual. It's a restriction imposed on society at large : If you meet criteria A, you may not perform occupation B. It's no different than saying you cannot fly fighter jets without adequate eyesight. The person is legally incompetent for the position, in the same way as any other form of legal incompetence.