Facing criminal charges and being imprisoned is a challenge for everyone, regardless of the severity of your crime. One of the biggest challenges people who have been convicted of a felony face is what happens after they return to society.
Even the smallest of felonies can impact the way the rest of your life will unfold. From challenges finding a job to difficulty in renting a home, your criminal record can cast a shadow on the rest of your life. That’s just without considering the impact on your social connections!
However, this doesn’t mean things are hopeless. If you’re looking for a way to start over and rebuild your life after a felony, there are several helpful options available to you.
Correctional Facilities
Understandably, the last thing that many ex-felons want to do is return to the facility in which they were imprisoned. However, depending on where you’re located, your correctional facility may have programs designed to help your reintegration into society easier.
These programs range from educational initiatives and help with starting a business to community partnership efforts to reduce the many barriers to re-entry many ex-felons face. You can find both governmental and non-governmental help. Aid is available in the sectors of education, housing, employment, health, and more.
Expungement Attorneys
Expungement refers to the process of getting your conviction records destroyed, erased, or sealed, depending on where the crime took place. If a conviction is expunged, it means that it does not need to be disclosed to most employers and landlords.
Essentially, with an expungement, if a potential employer asks if you have a criminal record, you can legally answer that you have none.
Not all crimes are eligible to be expunged. The list of crimes that can be expunged differs from state to state, so make sure to check your local laws.
If your conviction does, indeed, qualify, you can then apply for an expungement. For those who are eligible, starting the expungement process is a great way to begin to move past your felony. In order to start the process, it’s always important to hire an expungement attorney.
Even when the process may seem relatively straightforward, a professional will ensure that you don’t trip into any pitfalls that will damage your chances of a successful result. If you have a more complex history, you may also require the help of a criminal law attorney.
There are, of course, drawbacks to expungement. The process only seals legal information – if your arrest and conviction were documented online on news websites or social media, there is no way to wipe the Internet clean of that information.
Furthermore, your record will still be available to prosecutors should you re-offend. Furthermore, you may not be able to apply for certain sensitive positions, such as government and law enforcement jobs and jobs that require you to interact with children or vulnerable adults. If you decide to do so, your potential employer will still be able to access your criminal record, regardless of expungement.
That said, for most ex-felons, expungement is an important step to take. While it doesn’t return things to the normalcy of a pre-conviction life, it can help you take the first steps to start over.
Education
One of the best ways to move forward with your life is to develop new skills through education. Many correctional facilities offer education programs for existing inmates. However, these are not usually available for past inmates.
For those ex-felons who have been released, there are several other educational opportunities they can avail of. One of the biggest options you can choose is deciding to go to college, particularly if you have never attended one.
There is no law barring ex-felons from attending college, and many good colleges welcome students with a criminal record. In fact, some colleges do not require potential students to disclose whether they have a criminal record. If you need financial help to make attending college feasible, there are several scholarship opportunities that you can avail of. Alternatively, you can also apply to a low-cost, online university.
Besides providing you with higher education, a college degree can also open up your employment opportunities and help you consider jobs that you may not have been qualified for before.
Figuring out how to move on in the face of a felony conviction and imprisonment may seem challenging, but it is not impossible. There are a number of support options available to you as you start to reintegrate into society – all you need to do is look!