Criminal Record: A modern scarlet letter

An individual convicted of a felony, no matter when in that person’s life the crime occurs, can expect to make $500,000, or 50%, less over their lifetime than a person with a clean record. Why? Because the persistent and public nature of criminal records — available to almost everyone on the internet — follows a person in seeking employment, housing, and many other facets of their lives and gives them an “eternal criminal record” whether rehabilitated or not. Ames Grawert, Senior Counsel Justice Program at the Brennen Center for Justice talks about this modern scarlet letter in his recent article “Collateral Consequences and the Enduring Nature of Punishment“