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Wednesday, March 12, 2014

Gansler Testifies In Favor Of "Second Chance Act"

Letting ex-convicts shield their criminal records from prospective employers could be the major step toward making Maryland's prison re-entry rate plummet, Attorney General Doug Gansler said.

A pending Senate bill would allow shielding for 13 nonviolent misdemeanors, such as drug possession and trespassing. If the convicted person had no new offenses within five years after the sentence was completed, employers and colleges wouldn't be able to look at these criminal records.

Michigan's re-entry rate dropped significantly over nine years after the state took strides to help ex-convicts, putting it at 29 percent in the latest estimate. Meanwhile, Gansler said, Maryland's rate is still around 46 percent.

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6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh, yeah. We really need more of them at our side. Non violent doesn't mean NOT CRIMINAL at heart.

Anonymous said...

It's putting people at risk.

Anonymous said...

It's putting businesses at risk.

As a business owner, I would want to know and have a choice between equally qualified offenders and non-offenders. While I believe I will never find this actual instance, the knowledge that one was law-abiding for his/her entire life would be a factor over one that wasn't....a long term consistency in better choices.

Anonymous said...

Dang, you people are heartless. How many second chances have people given you in your life?

I would bet some of you are worse people than some of those coming out of jail.

Anonymous said...

4:35:
Go back into your cell.

Anonymous said...

Go back into your cell.

March 12, 2014 at 5:17 PM

Thank you for illustrating my point. ( that means you are an example of what I stated. I know you must have problems with big words.)