Felonious
Fodder: How
Many Felons In
Michigan?
by Jeff Gerritt
How many “convicted felons”
do you think there are
in Michigan?
Most of the people I asked,
even criminal defense attorneys,
guessed 300,000 or
400,000.
The highest estimate I
heard, from a parole officer,
was 700,000.
They’re all way off. The
answer is 1.3 million. That
means one out of every six
adults in Michigan has a
felony on his or her record.
“Convicted felon” has an
ominous tone, but they’re
obviously everywhere.
It’s not hard to get caught
up in some mess once in
your life. If you throw in
misdemeanors, one in four
Michigan adults has a
criminal record.
What’s more, those figures
hold pretty true across the
country. More than 50 million
people in America
have criminal records.
Those records can restrict
voting rights, deny admission
to certain university
programs, or ban people
from public housing.
In the information age,
criminal records are easy to
access by prospective employees,
and anyone else
with curiosity and a computer.
A lot of companies won’t
hire people with criminal
records, no matter what
they are or how long ago
they happened.
The Free Press commended
the city of Battle
Creek last week for enacting
an ordinance that prohibits
most city vendors
from having a blanket ban
on hiring people with felony
records.
The ordinance wouldn’t
require any employer to
hire anyone with a criminal
record, but it did send a
message that one mistake
shouldn’t necessarily mean
a lifetime sentence.
Shouldn't more municipalities
and employers adopt
such policies?
