The Big Weight of a Little Box...A perspective on the "ban the box" movement

Excerpt taken from "Taking My Soul to the Laundromat"

Although I was committed to the salvation of the community, uplifting myself was proving to be a challenge. In truth, I had never had a problem telling someone with whom I had developed a relationship about my past. The job search was different; I would not be unable to control how or to whom the information was going to be presented. While I had a lot of friends who could “hook me up,” I did not want to put them or myself on the line. Some unsuspecting human resources representative would not take the time to seek out my side of the story if they found out about my past. I had no control over how, why or what information was told. It could also be awkward having to explain my past to individuals with whom I may not have been comfortable.


I ended up passing up on several job leads. After a while, I learned that it would be difficult to go the traditional route in my job pursuit. Instead of going to career fairs and using all the modern job search techniques, I utilized more old school tactics like opening the newspaper and looking through the classifieds. Most of the groups who placed ads were smaller companies. My hope was that either they would not check on my background or they would give me a shot despite my background. Even this strategy did not work. I would be offered a job and find out a few days later that “something” had changed and that they were unable to offer me the position.

Through the experience, I learned that for individuals with a criminal background, it is “one strike and you're out.” People argue that you cannot simply judge someone by a piece of paper, especially if they commit minor crimes. They believe that everyone can be rehabilitated. Opponents argue that these individuals have had their opportunity and no longer deserve to remain part of society. Personally, I learned that it only takes one strike for an individual to be ostracized from mainstream society. To this day, with all of my accomplishments, there are several doors that are still closed to me because of a simple box on a piece of paper or a simple internet search.

In society, people love placing labels on and judging the next man. The term criminal means prejudgment for the individual wearing the label. Personally, I never allow myself to be addressed, even jokingly, by the term. It is about keeping a strong positive mentality. I argue that I committed a crime but I refuse to allow myself to be fit into the category of criminal. Oftentimes, I will make the analogy to that of a basketball player. While I may have a court in my driveway or go to the gym regularly, no one will ever consider me a basketball player. In order to be a basketball player, I will put all of my energy into earning that title. It takes years of practice to go from a dude who plays basketball to a basketball player. The same is true for a label of criminal. I made a mistake; there is one crime on my record which I will continue to fight to have removed. If I allow myself to be labeled a criminal, I am taking on all of the prejudices and mentalities that come with it. I fight with every bone in my body to avoid the label.

Whether fair or not, having a criminal record shuts a lot of doors. When we challenge individuals to re-enter society and find normalcy, the powers that be close the necessary doors to finding that normalcy. In reality, it is a form of accepted discrimination.

Discrimination, by definition, is treating someone differently based on a category into which they fit rather than their individual merits. While you can make the argument that a child predator should not be allowed to work in a school, it is difficult to find a rationale for not allowing an individual, who served his time and may have picked up a skill such as cutting hair, to not become a licensed barber.

The fact of the matter is that I have been to interviews for positions that I was overqualified to hold but could not get. Initially, I told the truth about my record because it is illegal to lie. After a while, I gambled and left it off the application in hopes that 1) they would not find out about my past and 2) if they did they would not report me to the authorities.

One of the best prospects came from the Post Office. They offered me a job as an Industrial Engineer, which I had taken as secondary classes. On a Wednesday, the interviewer called me to inform that I had gotten the position and we were going to start the following Monday. The only thing he needed to finalize was the background check. I knew I was done. Being that it was a government position, I feared that I may be reported. A friend of my father went in and changed my application to show that I had said yes. In the end, for better or worse, I never heard back from them. In the end, the check on the box outweighed a degree from one of the premier engineering programs in the world.

Society's one strike mentality is emasculating. It began to wear thin on me. I could only imagine what other guys with records were going through. These guys did not have a college degree or had been C.E.O. of a multi¬million-dollar organization. If I was swimming in the deep end, they had to be dog-paddling in the ocean.

It was easy to see how guys who got caught in the system, even good guys, could have difficulty escaping. Our system did not provide them the skills to work in the first place. In prison, the focus as stated by the Director of the Department of Corrections was not to rehabilitate but to punish. These individuals return to society worse off than they entered. Not only do they lack skills, they now have a strike. Inevitably it only makes sense, that without opportunity, people will do whatever it takes and one strike will become two, three and so forth. While each individual is ultimately responsible for their success or failure, society’s high rate of recidivism is directly related to its inability to offer opportunities to survive beyond the box.