Jobs: Felons need work to turn lives around

Creating more job opportunities for felons would benefit the community in various ways.

I am the daughter of a felon and have other family members who are felons. One might ask, “Why should we care if a felon can get a job? Or why should a felon deserve a job?”

Logically speaking, there are many repeat offenders out there who wouldn’t repeat the offense if they were occupied by a job, had a stable financial system and weren’t constantly turned down by employers who don’t want to be bothered by them.

Felons are looked down upon and constantly discouraged when it comes to finding jobs; I have personally witnessed this on many occasions. How can we as a community expect felons to turn their life around if we continue to turn them away and contribute to their hopelessness of finding a stable job?

One may look at someone who steals from someone else as scum, but what if that same person has a child to feed and can’t find a stable job?

This story was originally published January 22, 2016 at 3:22 PM with the headline "Jobs: Felons need work to turn lives around."