From Prison Policy Initiative:
You’ve probably never heard of the Thurmond Amendment, but for almost 40 years, it has been quietly enabling landlords to deny housing to people based solely on a past conviction for selling drugs — no matter how qualified they are as tenants, no matter what drugs or quantities were involved, and no matter how long ago they were convicted. This lifelong collateral consequence, tied to this one specific type of conviction, makes it even more difficult for people with criminal records to find housing at a time when it’s already a near-impossible task given the highly competitive rental markets in the U.S. As we and many other researchers have explained before, safe and stable housing is a critical factor in reentry success, while homelessness puts people directly in the crosshairs of law enforcement. These facts put the Thurmond Amendment directly at odds with correctional and public safety interests.
A coalition of advocates is working to repeal the law, led by a real estate investor who was directly impacted by the Thurmond Amendment. Their first step: gathering the available data about its impact and raising awareness of this overlooked relic of the failed “war on drugs.” That’s where we at the Prison Policy Initiative come in. One form of support we offer advocates — particularly through our Policy & Advocacy team — is to bring to light the relevant data that exists about an issue, and to find ways to fill in the gaps where the necessary information simply isn’t available. When the coalition came to us with the question of how many people are potentially impacted by the Thurmond Amendment, we combed through the available historical data to come up with an estimate, ultimately finding that over 3 million people in the U.S. have received drug distribution convictions since 1986 (which is as far back as the available data go). Continue reading >>>
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