Rights After Prison
By: Alyssa Camacho
Tags: Prison Reform

Once you or a loved one goes to prison, either for a long time or maybe a short amount of time, you become a felon and get rights taken from you after serving your sentence. There’s many different things that can happen to you and your mindset. Transitioning into the real world is not easy. Does the sentence ever really end?

Post-prison experience can turn your life upside down. Prisoners might experience culture shock, depression, anger, rejection, addiction and will have to avoid negative influences and learn to communicate their frustration in a positive way. What is culture shock? Culture shock is a feeling that prisoners get when you suddenly have to adapt to a new environment, unfamiliar culture, or a way of life. The longer a prisoner is in confinement the greater their culture shock may be. Rejection will most likely come from loved ones, friends, and jobs. But they have to learn to accept rejection.

Many rights will get taken away once a felon gets out of prison. One of those rights is possessing and purchasing a firearm. Congress has not set this as a law because in different cases, some felons have a right to purchase a firearm. There’s a big argument over if nonviolent felons should have the right to buy a firearm. After so many years of being a felon you can apply to get your gun rights back depending on the reason of your sentence, and if you were convicted by the federal or state government. It would be a quicker process if a felon was convicted by a state government.

Felons will also get their voting rights taken away. In some states you can get them taken permanently or just temporarily or not at all. In Maine and Vermont, felons never lose their right to vote, even while they are imprisoned. In 22 states, felons lose their voting rights during the time they are in prison, and for a period of time after, normally while on parole or probation. Voting rights are automatically restored after this time period, but if a felon happens to vote when not supposed to (based on the state laws in spite of the crime they committed), the vote is illegal. In five states convicted felons on probation may vote, but not those on parole.

In most states, convicted felons may not serve as jurors until the the very end of their sentence, which includes probation and parole. However, in all but four states, felon-jury banning laws prevent all guilty felons from serving on any type of jury like grand, civil or criminal.

A convicted felon cannot purchase a passport. So they cannot travel outside the country if planning on coming back. If they wanted to leave while on probation, or on parole they may do so with prior approval. A felon may go through a process to get a passport to be able to leave the country. Only felons who were guilty of drug trafficking across the United States of American border will never to accept to get a passport.

Employment and certain professions won’t be an option anymore once your become a certified felon. Individuals who have been convicted of a felony often have a difficult time in finding employment because many employers choose not to hire them. However, a series of laws may prevent an employer from having a policy against leaving out employees who have been convicted of a felony. Felons who are convicted of another felony while employed, put themselves in the position of having to tell their employer. Employers may legally fire an employee for pending charges and felony conviction depending on the charger and sentence time. A felony charge does not have a time limit it could be on there forever and may hurt one’s chances of getting any good job ever again.

When a person is called for jury duty in the United States, that person must attend. Failing to report for jury duty is illegal. If you are a convicted felon, you usually will not or cannot be called for jury duty service. That is because the names for jury duty are drawn from a registrar of voters. Usually, felons cannot register to vote. Therefore, their names will not be included on a registrar list. In habit to not being allowed to serve on a jury in most states, convicted felons are not allowed to apply for federal or state grants, live in public housing, or receive federal cash assistance, SSI or food stamps, among other benefits.

Depending on the crime, convicted felons don’t always lose all parental rights (unless the person was convicted of a more serious offense like murder). Although, in situations where the convicted felon was the only parent involved in the child’s life, and the child was put into foster care for an excessive amount of time, the convicted felon may lose parental rights. While convicted felons may not legally lose parental rights at the time of they were charged, it may affect parental rights down the road, especially in the case of custody battles or divorces. A felony conviction is almost always a red flag for any judge to award custody to the other parent.

Even if these are not necessarily lost rights, he or she may find it hard to get a lease, applying for a loan or filing official paperwork in any capacity. Once your a convicted felon you will lose the right to voting, traveling abroad or getting a passport, the right to bear arms or own guns, jury service, employment in certain fields, public social benefits and housing, and parental benefits. After being convicted you will have many rights taken away including the right to vote, gun privileges, and traveling out of the country and many more.

Sources :

“Can Felons Leave the Country?” JobsForFelonsHub.com, 22 Dec. 2018, www.jobsforfelonshub.com/can-felons-leave-country/.

Minnesota Public Radio News, www.mprnews.org/

Remember Those In Prison.” Prison Fellowship, www.prisonfellowship.org/.

“What Rights Do Convicted Felons Lose?” The Law Dictionary, thelawdictionary.org/article/what-rights-do-convicted-felons-lose/.