Felons & Job Opportunities

My husband is a felon.

He has admitted to his crimes, he has served his time, he has paid back every cent of restitution.

He cannot find decent employment.

Does he have a job? Yes.

He delivers various newspapers.

Are we lucky he has any type of job at all in this economy? Yes.

Does he want a better job or quite possibly a career? Absolutely!

We're very lucky that I have a great job which I love and let's me provide for my family comfortably.

My husband committed property crimes at the ages of 13 & 14 years old.

This consisted of stealing cars or as the State of Wisconsin likes to put it "Operating a motor vehicle without owners consent".

If you looked him up, you'd find a few other miscellaneous charges, including attempting to escape.

If you spoke with him, you'd find out why. I can tell you in my own words but it just doesn't seem to have the impact as speaking with him personally.

His father was the person that was there for him. No matter which prison in the state he was put into, his dad was there every week to see him. The last time he saw his father was on a visit in prison in 2001. He was all of 18 years old. The prison system would not allow him out to attend his father's funeral and he attempted to escape while going through his grieving process. He also paid for that mistake with an additional 11 months added to his sentence.

Let's go back to what he did.

Stole cars. He didn't physically harm anyone, he didn't murder or rape anyone. He stole a few cars.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to diminish his crimes by any means. I'm attempting to get across that they were awful harsh on a teenager with the sentencing they handed down. I read in the news daily how murderers & rapists are getting much less time in prison and it makes me sick.

The Department of Health & Human Services in this "wonderful" county decided that they couldn't handle him. He was too much of a problem and they wanted him waived to adult court. At the age of 14, for stealing cars.

The Department of Corrections didn't want him, he was too young and afterall, he didn't do anything to hurt anyone, he stole cars.

Someone somewhere managed to get him waived to adult court.

The DHHS would have had to accept him back to waive him back to juvenile court. They refused. The DOC had no decent means of imprisoning a non-violent 14 year old other than to send him to regular adult prison.

He spent from age 14 to 16 in the local county jail.

At 16, he was transferred into the adult prison system in Wisconsin in 1999.

He was released in April of 2008. Yes, you did read that correctly. He spent from 1997 to 2008 locked up, for stealing cars.

He has been on parole, has been in no trouble, and has not been revocated at all. He grew up in prison basically. He had to learn to live out here. They say they're teaching you how to survive once you get out, but they're not. I've seen it first hand, they throw them out the door with a kick in the ass and good luck.

Do they owe him anything, well no, not really. He has no sense of entitlement about anything.

He just wants a job.

Did they make a mistake throwing a non-violent criminal into the adult prison system as a teenager? I believe so.

Finding a job with a record isn't easy. Everyone judges without asking questions.

You can't lie, the records are public and easily found online now.

If you tell the truth, the other 500 applicants are going to get a call back before you.

We've all made mistakes as teenagers and many were just lucky enough to not get caught (including myself). You move on, you grow up. Why can't a person who made these mistakes and was unlucky enough to get caught, move on and grow up also?

He's going to be 29 years old next month.

He's a very decent man. He's my husband, the step-father to my children and I'm a Mama Bear when it comes to my children. He's loving, caring, hard working, loyal, and believe it or not, honest!

I imagine his resume ends up in a garbage pile 75% of the time.

He's applied for hundreds of jobs, even up to an hour and a half away from home. Even in a neighboring state. He's had a total of four interviews.

So are there felon friendly companies out there?

I'm beginning to believe that there are not.