Miami Dade Gives Former Offenders A Slight of Hope

Miami Dade Commissioners have recently voted to eliminate from the public employment application the question that required an applicant to answer whether he or she was subjected to a criminal record. It was called the "Ban the Box" on county job applications. Back in July I wrote a blog entitled "An Eternal Crime." My main argument was for government "to give those people back their lives by allowing them to be able to work to sustain themselves and their families, and not resort to criminal activities."

I applaud this new step in Miami Dade. It gives people hope. It has been estimated that 70 million Americans nationwide have some type of criminal record. I think it is counter-productive and ultimately ludicrous to keep those people from having an existence. They are people; they are here; they must live! When you say they should not be able to obtain employment, you have taken the mean of subsistence, life, away from them. And as a result, you have a backlash on the society which those individuals are part of. They resort to petty a life form and more crime, and with that, a whole generation and subsequent generations of them.

The commissioners of Miami Dade, led by Jean Monestime the Chairman, understood just that. People have to be able to earn a decent and dignified living. When you automatically subtract them from the job market, it is plain injustice. He wrote, "I made it a point of my chairmanship to reduce the income inequality gap, and this legislation will give people a chance to make an honest living..." It is reported that 19 states, 79 cities, and 21 counties have enacted such legislation to eliminate criminal history questions from their job applications. They recognize that people have to earn a living and certain mistakes in the past may most often not that people are societal threats. In contrast, as they have considered, it could do more harm by not allowing pass offenders to earn a normal existence and push them back to the underworld living and criminality.

It is understood that job seekers in Miami Dade would still undergo a criminal background check. Former offenders would still thus have to face the devil in their past. However, by allowing them into the door they would have a much fairer chance to prove their qualifications and their abilities to perform in the job market; and they could have a dialogue personally with their potential employers, proving to them that they have left behind bad behaviors that had pushed them to commit mistakes that no longer have any influence on them.

I praise the Miami Dade Commissioners who have supported this cause. President Obama and even the Pope have taken similar positions by visiting penitentiaries and pleading to help the offenders into rehabilitation. They both recognized that people could fail to certain vices. Yet, they should not be condemned to advance deeper into the inferno. They should instead be given a hand to adapt and improve their lives in their society. 

By E.C. GRANMOUN
E.C. Granmoun is the Author of: "The Social Worker"  ebook, amazon.com

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