Washington state representative and civil rights activist Tarra Simmons marked an important milestone last week when her criminal record was officially vacated.
You have spoken about no longer being part of “an underclass.” Can you talk about some of the obstacles the formerly incarcerated face when they try to integrate back into society?
I will say like housing and employment are the biggest obstacles because you kind of need those things in order to not commit crimes. If you cannot find housing, and you're living outside, a lot of times, you're exposed to people that are also using drugs, so your chances not using drugs are really minimal. In order to have any kind of foundation, you have to have housing, and it is very, very hard to find landlords willing to rent to people with criminal history.
The biggest barrier was that and then employment. We have made progress over the last five years but when I was released it was if you wanted a family wage job, the only place you could really find one was in like the trades — carpenter, iron worker, electrician, those types of things.
It's kind of crazy and weird and I'm still trying to really embrace this because being a felon has been my identity since I was 13 years old, and so it has definitely been part of my development, my self-worth and I'm glad to be letting it go, but it's going to take some time to see myself as a regular, integrated citizen.Every state is different. Some states are better than us, some worse.
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