Convicted and Unemployed: New at Reason

If you just got out of jail, odds are you’ll be back in within five years. The government doesn’t make it easy to stay out.

John Stossel writes:

America makes it extra hard for ex-cons to find work. Some states make it illegal.

Illinois bans ex-convicts from more than 118 professions.

I understand why people might not want ex-cons to be bank security guards or cops, but in many states (Illinois isn’t unusual) the list of forbidden jobs goes way beyond that.

The Illinois Policy Institute, a free-market group that tries to get these laws tossed out, reports that ex-cons must give up on trying to become a nurse, architect, interior designer, dancehall operator, teacher, dietician, acupuncturist, cosmetologist, buyer of slaughtered livestock, geologist, etc.

Why? Who cares if a livestock buyer or geologist once served time? If employers want to hire him, why tell them, “No”?

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