Making Contact – Checking the Box

Every job, apartment and loan application asks: have you been convicted of a felony? Check the box, and the door can close for life. We trace these laws to the post-Civil War South and hear from people living with a record today. Description: A criminal conviction doesn’t end when the sentence does. Across much of the United States, a felony record can cost you your vote, your seat on a jury, and your shot at housing, jobs and professional licenses, sometimes for life. This week on Making Contact, we trace felony disenfranchisement and the “collateral consequences” of a record back to the Black Codes and the post-Civil War state constitutions, and ask why these laws still fall hardest on Black Americans. We hear from Nicole Porter of The Sentencing Project, UC Davis law professor Gabriel “Jack” Chin, and Tamora and Lance Wissinger of the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition, who describe life after conviction in their own words. Archival audio: Michelle Alexander, speaking at Abyssinian Baptist Church, New York City, January 12, 2012 (Pacifica Radio Archives). Content advisory: one segment describes sexual assault by a police officer. An on-air warning precedes it.   ***Covering the movements, issues and people fighting for some of the most important social justice issues of our time. Hosted by Amy Gastelum, Salima Hamirani, Anita Jonhson, and Lucy Kang. Sign up for program alerts and sneak peeks from Making Contact at: http://ow.ly/1FkV30aq1z2*** The post Making Contact – Checking the Box appeared first on KPFA.