Unjust: Life after conviction disproportionately challenging for LGBT people

Life after conviction is especially challenging for LGBT people. (File photo)

by Sara Ritsch
Staff Writer

Pt. VIII: An Unjust Criminal Justice System

Life After Conviction

Can you imagine the shock of going from discrimination in imprisonment to discrimination in freedom? It is a disheartening, sometimes terrifying process.

Section 3 of Unjust: How the Broken Criminal Justice System Fails LGBT People takes us on a walk through Life after conviction: LGBT people face added challenged to rebuilding their lives.

This can be an enormous task for someone trying to return to the ‘real world’ and to relearn how to support themselves, obtain basic care and essentials and reignite interpersonal relationships. All of this combined with the already multi-faceted rejection faced in and out of prison can be devastating for LGBT people.

Two facets will be covered in Section 3 of Unjust. The first was covered last week, focusing on a lack of support for LGBT people in probation, parole and re-entry programs.

The second facet is that having a criminal record harms LGBT people’s ability to support themselves and be a part of their families and communities. Today, we will approach this impediment with a close look at the unique experiences for LGBT individuals.

Impact of having a criminal record:

A criminal record creates obstacles that only an unfortunate, select few have to handle. This applies to fair treatment in “obtaining public assistance, which can be essential for individuals just out of prison; obtaining stable, fair employment to earn a living wage; and accessing educational programs to improve employment opportunities,” according to Unjust.

These are the topics we will cover today:

Problem: Difficulty finding housing

A 2014 survey of formerly incarcerated people states that 79 percent of them reported being denied housing due to their criminal records. This applies to residential facilities, private market rental housing and public housing and rental assistance.

“Halfway houses” are residential reentry centers where inmates are housed right before their release. They provide housing, supportive services, and connections to job training programs or employment programs.

“The Reentry Employment Opportunities Program (REO) is a federally funded program that supports programs for young people ages 14 to 24 who have been involved in the juvenile justice system. The REO program provides pre- and post-release services, including work experience and internships, basic skills training, GED preparation, mentoring, and case management,” explains Unjust.

Many of these REO-funded organizations are religiously affiliated, which can provide a hindrance for LGBT young people. Much discrimination can be faced regarding sexual orientation or gender identity in places with a religious agenda. This increases the likelihood that they will be denied guidance and support.

Finding private market rental housing for formerly incarcerated people is next to impossible. About 80 percent of landlords run background checks on prospective tenants, discriminating against those who have a criminal record.

Only 20 states and Washington, D.C. have laws outlawing housing discrimination against LGBT people. But, in federally funded housing programs, discrimination is prohibited.

Public housing and rental assistance are administered federally. They include Section 8, “which provides financial assistance to individuals for housing on the private market. However, this housing assistance has broad restrictions for those with criminal records,” says Unjust.

Problem: Inadequate health care after release

If your only source of healthcare was in jail or prison, where do you go when you get out?

Formerly incarcerated people may qualify for healthcare such as Medicaid. But, they may not know they qualify. And what’s worse – most states stop an individual’s enrollment in Medicaid about 30 days after incarceration, which requires them to reapply as soon as they are released. But this application process can take up to several weeks or months, which puts their care or coverage on hiatus.

This can mean missing medication, lack of urgent care and increased risk of future run-ins with the law.

“Formerly incarcerated individuals are 12 times more likely to die from health problems in the first two weeks after release when compared to the general population – most frequently from drug overdose or cardiovascular disease,” explains Unjust.

The numbers are also high among men and women with HIV. In one study told by Unjust only 5.4 percent of recently released people with HIV had filled their antiretroviral prescriptions within 10 days of release, 18 percent in 30 days and only 30 percent within 60 days!

Now – to make it worse – imagine being transgender and needing your hormones or trans-related healthcare. This access is already hard to obtain, and they are only hindered further having been recently released from incarceration.

Problem: Difficulties finding employment

LGBT people already face employment discrimination “because of who they are or who they love,” says Unjust. If you are LGBT and have a criminal record, the odds are doubly against you. And, a lack of steady employment is “the single greatest predictor of recidivism among individuals with criminal records.”

Workers of color and LGBT workers of color are the most disadvantaged when they hold a criminal record. In other studies, the worst likelihood for employment is for women with criminal records. Having a criminal record also makes it hard to obtain occupational licenses.

Even though the offense may have nothing to do with the job at hand, many employers still run background checks or deny employment to felons. Only a slim majority of employers who employ background checks allow for the job candidates to explain the results before they make the decision not to hire.

Most unfortunately, the greatest benefit of the doubt is given to white applicants. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) says that criminal background checks directly impact people of color. The EEOC recommends that employers limit their use of background checks when it isn’t absolutely necessary.

As of last year, about 18 states and over a hundred cities/counties have adopted “fair chance” policies that remove criminal history questions from most government job applications. This way, all candidates must be judged based on their qualifications.

Problem: Ineligibility for public assistance

Studies show that LGBT people are more likely to rely on public assistance for their necessities, such as food stamps. This is because of the problems that LGBT people run into throughout their lives that can hinder their employment, housing and criminal records.

Prohibiting LGBT people recently out of incarceration from benefiting from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), or food stamps, disproportionately affects their ability to feed themselves and their families.

Problem: Overuse and misuse of sex offender registries

Being placed on the sex offender registry does two things: it increases sentences for crimes under sex offender laws, and it places limitations on individuals convicted of these crimes after their sentences have been served.

Increased discrimination means that sex offender laws unfairly impact LGBT people. An LGBT person, as discussed weeks ago, could be convicted of sodomy, even if it is consensual, and then be placed under sex offender status.

Sex offender laws that directly affect the LGBT community according to Unjust:

Some state laws criminalize consensual sex among some LGBT youth, but not youth in different-sex couples, such as Texas.
Some HIV criminalization laws require sex offender status or listing an individual on a sex offender registry.
Policing strategies target men who have sex consensual with men.
Some laws allow law enforcement to cite the possession of condoms as evidence of solicitation or prostitution, and some prostitution-related convictions carry with them sex offender status.
Many laws unfairly target transgender women. For example, in Louisiana some LGBT people, mainly transgender women of color, report being arrested, charged, and convicted of soliciting “crimes against nature.” This is a separate and more serious charge than general solicitation, and multiple convictions for crimes against nature require registration as a sex offender. According to a report from the Department of Justice, people convicted of crimes against nature comprise 40 percent of the Orleans Parish sex registry. Of those convicted, 80 percent were African American.

People convicted under sex offender status carry certain requirements, such as checking in at certain intervals of time, indicating a move or homelessness, or sharing car registration information.

Transgender people may not be permitted to dress according to their gender identity.

Other restrictions can be a benefit to society, if the person criminalized as a sex offender has actually committed a nonconsensual crime. This includes not being able to live so-many-feet away from a church, school or park; limiting internet access and restricting places of employment.

“While the motivation to keep communities safe from people who might pose harm to children is understandable,” Unjust says, “the misuse and overuse of sex offender registries can ruin the lives of many people who pose no threat to their community, and whose criminal records are the result of discriminatory and overly aggressive policing.”

There are still 5 topics to be covered in this section, which we will address next week on Life after conviction: LGBT people face added challenged to rebuilding their lives.