FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: May 28, 2002

Many Parents With Past Criminal Records Unfairly Excluded from Jobs, Housing, and Basic Services

 

 

 

For immediate release                                                   Contact: John Hutchins,           

Tuesday, May 28, 2002                                               (202) 906-8013, jhutchins@clasp.org

 

Many Parents With Past Criminal Records Unfairly Excluded from Jobs, Housing, and Basic Services

 

New Report Finds Every Door Closed to Parents Trying to Rebuild Their Lives

 

(Washington, DC) -- Last year, approximately 400,000 mothers and fathers finished serving prison or jail sentences.  As these parents struggle to make a fresh start, they will encounter many legal barriers that will make it very difficult for them to successfully care for their children, find work, get safe housing, go to school, access public benefits, or even, for immigrants, stay in the same country as their children. 

 

A groundbreaking new report, Every Door Closed: Barriers Facing Parents With Criminal Records by Amy E. Hirsch, Sharon M. Dietrich, Rue Landau, Peter D. Schneider, Irv Ackelsberg, Judith Bernstein-Baker, and Joseph Hohenstein, documents the legal challenges these families face, illustrated by compelling stories of ex-offenders who are trying to go straight but are frustrated in their attempts to rebuild their lives and families. 

 

Every Door Closed is being released today at the Fourth Annual International Fatherhood Conference, sponsored by the National Center for Strategic Nonprofit Planning and Community Leadership in Washington, DC.  This conference brings together policymakers, service providers, and leaders from community- and faith-based organizations who are concerned with strengthening fathers, families, and communities.

 

Jointly published by the Center for Law and Social Policy and Community Legal Services, Inc., of Philadelphia, Every Door Closed examines the barriers that, singly and in combination, tear apart families headed by ex-offenders, create unemployment and homelessness, and guarantee failure, thereby not only harming parents and children but entire communities as well.  The report also offers recommendations for federal and state policymakers.

 

 

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A national, nonprofit organization founded in 1968, CLASP conducts research, policy analysis, technical assistance, and advocacy on issues related to economic security of low-income families with children.