Yet, there is evidence that this troubling social-reality is far from an impossibly entrenched barrier. Studies indicate that the disproportion between white and nonwhite employment shrinks and even disappears among those without a criminal record with similar educational attainment and familial dynamics. That is, evidence indicates that African-American males without criminal-records, with a decent educational backgrounds, and stable familial upbringings (born and raised in households headed by a mother and father) are nearly as likely as historically more advantaged counterparts to attain stable employments and income.

This indicates that certain employers are willing to put aside whatever prejudices (reprehensible and inexcusable as they are) if a nonwhite applicant lacks a criminal-record. If there is absent any evidence that an employer can use to justify his prejudices, he is more likely to set his misconceived preconceptions aside. Under the reconciliation-based reforms that Mitch Pearlstien and others propose, a trial judge would remove unreasonable collateral-sanctions and after a successful rehabilitation period, the judge would vacate the conviction. Thus,a stigmatizing conviction would cease to follow s an honest person who, after completing a reconciliation process, seeks work and responsibility.

Such a forgiveness-based reform can assist toward eliminating misbegotten notions, building trust among peoples and this, rather than therapeutic mechanisms, is really the only to eliminate social prejudices. Furthermore, such reforms can also assist persons toward gaining family-supporting work, more conducive to supporting a stable family structure and such true progress is the only way to ensure that more of future generations will be out of prison and in homes, churches, at work, contributing to the common good according to their capacities and vocations.

Nonetheless, we only solve one aspect, albeit an important aspect, if we incarcerate for violent offences while exploring viable options for non-violent crimes such as (depending on the crime) shorter sentences, non-imprisonment custody such as house-arrest, non-custodial punishments, greater use of citations, etc. The best prison reform and law-enforcement policies require measures directed towards assisting those seeking to re-integrate into society and gain employment after facing incarceration. Mitch Pearlstein, in his aforementioned essay, highlights forgiveness-based approaches directed toward removing the collateral sanctions and collateral consequences that accompany an incarceration. The former, collateral sanctions, refer to the legal barriers to employment that persons face after serving a sentence. The later, collateral consequences, refer to the social-stigma that plagues those seeking societal reintegration.

Certain collateral sanctions are reasonable–ones that prohibit ex-convicts employment involving work in the vicinity of children and sanctions that prohibit auto-thefts from employment hat requires using a company car. Nonetheless, other sanctions are unreasonable and unnecessary. Furthermore, collateral consequences prove perhaps even more rehabilitating than sanctions. Collateral consequences, as aforementioned, refer to the social stigma that accompanies ex-convict’s efforts to rehabilitate and reintegrate into a stable life. Collateral consequences, coupled with collateral sanctions, are among the most influential causes of chronic and long-term unemployment among low-income citizens (the demographic that faces the highest, most frequent and longest bouts of unemployment).

Collateral consequences are in many aspects more difficult to limit than collateral sanctions since they are intrinsically linked to more subtle social dynamics. Many see evidence of racism in the disproportionate incarceration-rates for nonwhite, especially African-American males. While such accusations tend toward hyperbole and outright false, there is truth to that point yet in a more subtle regard. On her “Kinship & Culture” blog, Eve Tushent refers to a research experiment conducted by sociologists Bruce Western and Devah Prage concerning collateral consequences. The study’s results indicated that nonwhite applicants with a criminal-record were more likely to be denied employment than white applicants with a similar background and a criminal-record. From these results, one can conclude that prejudices among certain employers remain a barrier for many seeking to gain re-employment and reintegrate following an incarceration.