Law Commons^™

Give It To Me, I'M Worth It: The Need To Amend Georgia's Record Restriction Statute To Provide Ex-Offenders With A Second Chance In The Employment Sector, Bonita A. Huggins

Georgia Law Review

In the era of mass criminalization, where over 70
million Americans and almost four million Georgians
have a criminal record, the collateral consequences that
accompany criminal records have become barriers to
employment for many ex-offenders trying to reenter the
workforce. Blanket exclusionary hiring policies that
apply to all individuals with a record regardless of the
nature of the offense or time since its commission have
left a portion of the population with little to no
opportunity to act as productive, contributing members
of society.
Georgia's current statutory scheme built to alleviate
the effects of the collateral consequences of a criminal …

Informed Misdemeanor Sentencing, Jenny M. Roberts

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

There is no such thing as a low-stakes misdemeanor. The misdemeanor sentence itself, which can range from time served to up to twelve years in some jurisdictions, is often significant. But the collateral consequences of such a conviction can be far worse, affecting a person’s work and home lives for decades, and sometimes for the rest of their lives. As a result of misdemeanor convictions, defendants can be fired from their jobs, barred from future employment in many fields, deported, evicted from public housing together with their entire family, and refused housing by private landlords.

Under most theories of punishment, …