Without access to credit, ex-cons may return to lives of crime [thehill.com]

Alicia Doktor 3/8/1912:00 PM

Every week, more than 10,000 prisoners are released from U.S. prisons and begin the long process of reintegrating into society.

For many, a successful reintegration will occur only if they can access the types of credit commonly used by all American citizens, such as credit cards and auto loans. For those unable to borrow, prospects for successful re-entry fall and recidivism risks rise. That’s bad for all of us.

Lack of access to credit can push former inmates into poverty traps and cycles of criminal behavior that hurts us all, but there are solutions that can change that.

[For more on this story by CARLOS FERNANDO AVENANCIO-LEÓN, go to https://thehill.com/opinion/fi...rn-to-lives-of-crime]

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Robert OlcottMember

After two months of 'couch-surfing' [during the winter of] my senior year in High School, as an 'emancipated minor', and working part-time for Kodak, I moved into my own apartment, only to learn I had to make an additional payment to have my gas and electricity tuned on-as I had no credit rating. I made the mistake of assuming that selling some marijuana to an adult would allow me to have enough money to pay the "deposit' required by the gas and electric company.... Maybe some of the folks noted in this article wouldn't have gone to jail in the first place if suitable options for developing a 'credit history', or suitable options existed, prior to their 'making a mistake' in the first place. When I got out of jail, and went to the Gas & Electric Co., to pay the 'deposit' plus interest, I learned that they were not going to charge me any 'interest' on the deposit 'fee'. (It seems like one heck of a way to establish a 'credit history'.....

3/8/1912:16 PM

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