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<\/p>\n“I think it would be a little more accurate if a judge said something along the lines of, ‘I sentence you to six years in prison as your down payment.’ Then ‘I sentence you to a lifetime of reduced earning capacity,'” Savtiz says. \/ Photo: Allison V. Smith for KERA<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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I was an addict. I was an addict for many years, and I became incarcerated as a direct result of my addiction. I was charged and convicted of possession of narcotics. I went in 2006 and came out in the summer of 2008.<\/p>\n
As I exited prison, I had made all these new plans for my life, and I found \u2014 virtually from the moment I stepped out of the gate \u2014 that there were many, many more barriers in place than I expected there to be.<\/p>\n
I exited with no clothing that fit, so I was dependent on a community group that donated clothing. They gave me one outfit for church, one outfit to apply for work in and one outfit that I could wear, you know, at home. So, that was basically what I started my new life with.<\/p>\n
You’re immediately looking for work. I’ve taken a series of low paying jobs \u2014 I’ll just say it, bad<\/em> jobs \u2014 to just get started, to just get me back into the community. The first job that I had was $10 an hour. This was not enough to obtain an apartment<\/span> \u2014 even if somebody had been willing to rent to me.<\/p>\n I actually stayed with that company for a few years and rose through multiple layers of roles within that company. Through that entire time, I never made the same amount as the other people in lateral positions.<\/p>\n I was interested in obtaining my social work degree, and I was told that I would have to apply to the state licensing board so that they could determine whether I would be eligible for that license<\/span>.<\/p>\n I followed all of the guidelines set forth by the state, submitted all of the documents, and the response was, “We’ve declined to answer at this time.” Which means I will have to invest in all of my schooling and just hope that in the end it all works out and this state will be willing to license me, and that’s a really expensive proposition when you don’t know<\/span> the answer. It’s a giant gamble. Job advancement after prison is difficult. So is simply getting (and keeping) a job.<\/p>\n The chasm between unemployment rates for people who have a prison record (the purple bars) and the U.S. general public (light blue dots) spreads up to 39 percentage points.<\/p>\n Some context: Peak unemployment for the general population during the Great Depression<\/em> (1933) was 25%.<\/p>\n
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\nAt one point I was making $16 an hour, and that was more than anybody else I knew who had a [record] and I began to wonder … is this it? Have I hit the ceiling cap for what I can make with my type of background?<\/p>\nUnemployment Rates for Ex-Offenders<\/h5>\n