As we come to the end of National Reentry Week, we think about our client partners who are regularly faced with government-imposed barriers to future success and stability. Check out our recommendations for change in this article co-authored by YSRP-partner agency Community Legal Services attorney and YSRP Board Member Jamie Gullen, and YSRP Co-Director Joanna Visser Adjoian. In it, they offer important, actionable policy solutions that would make a big difference in enabling young people to put their past interactions with the criminal system behind them, including:
- Allow youth who have a reentry plan or are working with a social services provider to re-enter public housing regardless of the nature of their convictions.
- End employment and licensing bans for people with certain convictions, allowing people to show individualized evidence of their capacity to work in their chosen field.
- Fund a subsidized jobs program focused on young people with criminal records that builds ladders to future career opportunities.
- Expand record clearing in Pennsylvania and around the country to apply to more types of records, including felony convictions, when individuals have shown their capacity for rehabilitation.
Read the full article
here.
