Matthew T. Mangino
GateHouse Media
September 23, 2017
Much has been made of Harvard University’s decision not to
admit Michelle Jones into its doctoral program over the recommendation of the
university’s history department.
Jones served 20 years in prison for murdering her 4-year-old
son. During her time behind bars, according to the New York Times, Jones
compiled a record of accomplishment that would be remarkable even for someone
who had never been incarcerated.
Scenario’s like Jones’ play out every day in America. The
stigma of a criminal conviction haunts former offenders for life. Recently, on
a college campus a long way from Harvard, a student with a juvenile criminal
conviction for rape faced an onslaught of public outrage and ultimately the
capitulation of the university.
Ma’lik Richmond the on again, off again, Youngstown State
University (YSU) football player is embroiled in a controversial lawsuit of his
own making. However, does that make what is happening at Youngstown State
right?
Richmond served about 10 months in a juvenile detention
facility after he and a Steubenville High School teammate were convicted in
2013 of rape a 16-year-old girl during a party.
Richmond was released in January 2014 and attended colleges
in West Virginia and Pennsylvania before transferring to YSU in the fall 2016.
Richmond did an unspeakable thing. He committed a terrible
crime. As a result, he served time and as a 21-year-old is a registered
sex-offender — having to report to authorities once a year for 10 years.
Richmond, by all accounts, was a pretty good high school
football player. That, and allegations of a cover-up to protect the “prestige”
of Steubenville High School football, contributed to the international
notoriety the case received.
In January, he joined the YSU football team as a
non-scholarship walk-on. In August, Richmond was informed by YSU officials that
he would be required to sit-out a season. He had not broken any university rule
or violated any policy of the university or the football program.
He was declared ineligible by the university because public
sentiment had turned against him. The Board of Trustees turned up the pressure
on the YSU administration and the result was Richmond had to sit.
Richmond didn’t take the decision lightly. He filed suit
against the university and a federal judge granted him a temporary injunction.
He played against Central Connecticut State University last Saturday. A hearing
on a permanent injunction is scheduled for Sept. 28.
Sept. 28 will not be the end of it for Ma’lik Richmond or
other people, young and old, with criminal records.
Federal, state, and local laws impose an ever growing set of
barriers on people with criminal records, no matter how small. The so called
collateral consequences of conviction vary depending on the type of crime
committed, but can affect nearly every aspect of a person’s life, including
admission into institutions of higher learning and apparently participation in
extracurricular activities.
According to the Sentencing Project, many collateral
consequences apply automatically to anyone with a conviction, without taking
into account the nature of the offense or how long ago the crime was committed.
Most apply for life, without any method for relief, even if the person never
again commits a crime.
Recently, the U.S. Department of Justice Department funded a
project, run by the American Bar Association, to create a database of
collateral consequences. They found more than 44,000 such consequences
nationwide.
To use a football metaphor, politicians across the country
just keep “piling on” those convicted of a crime. As Jones and Richmond now
know, marginalizing former offenders is not exclusively for politicians.
Matthew T. Mangino is of counsel with Luxenberg, Garbett, Kelly &
George P.C. His book The Executioner’s Toll, 2010 was released by McFarland
Publishing. You can reach him at www.mattmangino.com and
follow him on Twitter @MatthewTMangino.
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