From Vera:
When Pam Thompson was released from prison, she couldn’t find housing. Landlords wouldn’t rent to her because of her conviction history. Employers, too, wouldn’t hire her.
“I just hit wall after wall,” she said. Eventually, she started taking more risks to make ends meet and ended up back in prison.
Thompson is far from alone. Many of the millions of people who leave jail or prison every year struggle to find a place to live and a job that enables them to provide for themselves and their families. Any involvement in the criminal legal system can lead to a web of barriers that makes it almost impossible for people to rebuild their lives.
The United States criminal legal system fails to break the cycle of crime or set people up to succeed. Research shows that, in 2012, about 71 percent of people exiting prison were rearrested within five years of release. And, of the estimated 5.6 million people sent to jail each year, at least 20 percent are jailed more than once in a given year. Continue reading >>>
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