Dear Governor Jim Justice, We the citizens of the US have come together as a group of concerned citizens to ask for your support in abolishing or amending any current law that allows employers to discriminate against NON-VIOLENT felons wno DO NOT HAVE any sexually based offenses, child or elderly abuse convictions once they have completed their sentences, thus cementing West Virginia as a state that honors the unalienable rights of it's citizens by affording them the right to the pursuit of happiness in obtaining a decent job for decent pay as prescribed in the U.S. Declaration of Independence.

    How can we, as a society, pressure people and even demand that they change, send them to prisons where they are expected to develop those changes, but after they have made the changes that we wanted them to make, and are released from prison, we allow employers to use their backgrounds and their credit histories as a legal way to discriminate against a certain group of people?

The sentences that are handed down by our court system are for a specified amount of time or a specific amount of money, or maybe both, but once the offender has completed their punishments, their debt should be considered paid in full, but that is not the case in West Virginia. Here in West Virginia, every person who is convicted of a felony is given a life sentence, at punishment that was never part of the sentencing, yet has become a punishment that continues forever because West Virginia will allow employers to pull up their pasts and their credit scores, and will allow the employers to refuse to hire someone who is otherwise qualified for the position for no other reason than what that person has already been punished for, effectively creating a virtual double jeopardy. The process of background checks is the greatest cause of prison recidivism and takes a major toll on our public entitlement programs because these people are not being allowed to work and make an honest living. Since we all MUST live, we are effectively forcing ex-felons who have a true desire to change and who want to work back into criminal activities that are sure to eventually send them back to prison. That is absolutely disgusting, and each and every one of us should be ashamed. Those people have paid a HORRIBLE price for breaking the rules with something more precious than diamonds and gold, YEARS of their LIVES. They paid for whatever they have done in the past, and now our government needs to protect them from the companies that are refusing to hire them. Why would these people change if we are just going to allow employers to treat them as if they have not changed at all? What do we expect our fellow West Virginians to do for a living if they stop committing crimes AND we refuse to let them work? What would we do if we were in that same situation? Would you commit a crime to keep a roof over your head and feed your family? Most people would, and yet, we are leaving our fellow West Virginians no other choice than to commit a crime or die. Every single one of us has committed some kind of crime whether we know it or not. Nobody is innocent,

      Harvard University professor Harvey Silverglate estimates that the average AMERICAN PROFESSIONAL commits about three felonies a day due to over-criminalization, badly written laws and other such things. Silverglate argues that federal law has become so massive, pervasive, and vague that professionals and businessmen unknowingly commit at least three felonies a day. All of those things can and will be dug up by overzealous prosecutors who have their sights set on a certain individual.

   I have never had a violent crime, a sex crime, any crimes against children or the elderly, and not even a drug crime, so while I was in prison, I stopped using drugs and earned a pipe fitting certification. I completely remolded myself and did anything and everything possible to make myself a better person. I did a complete 180 and was the GED instructor in the prison for my last year. I scored one of the highest scores ever on the WorkKeys Test and was awarded a platinum certificate stating that I had the ability to basically do any job that I wanted and would be suitable for a doctor or a lawyer. Everything was looking up for a change and I couldn't wait to get out and start my life back over again the right way.

   The day that I was released, I began filling out applications. I wasn't trying to get a job as a CEO or anything, just a job that paid enough to support my family. I was interviewed twice and hired by a telemarketing company for $16 an hour. I was very happy because I knew that I was finally out of the criminal world completely because I could finally afford to pay my bills and take care of my family. Several days after I was hired, I received a text that said, "We are sorry to inform you that due to your background check, we are hereby rescinding our previous offer of employment." This was a job doing nothing except answering incoming calls and helping people to understand their insurance policy. What did my Attempted Conspiracy or shoplifting charges have anything to do with that job in any way? It did not! Since there was no legitimate connection between my crime and that job, my new position should have been protected by our government, but it was not! That company was legally allowed to deny employment to be for no other reason than having a past.  

   In closing, we never know which of us will be convicted of breaking a law that we never knew existed. It could be you or your child that this happens to the next time. If you went to prison for that crime, wouldn't you think that you paid for what you did? Shouldn't you be allowed to work for a living when you are released? There are a few companies out there that will hire felons, but they are mostly (Like 99.8%) manual labor jobs, and we are not all able to do manual labor, such as myself. I've had 2 major back surgeries in the last year, so I have to have a job that is not labor intensive, BUT there are no companies like that that will hire ex-felons. It has been 4 years since I was released. I'm nothing like the person I was when I was on drugs, and I have not been in any trouble since 2015, but I have not been able to find 1 single job that I am able to do in all this time ONLY because of the fact that the state of West Virginia refuses to protect us from this form of discrimination, effectively stripping away our unalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness with a reasonable expectation that we will be allowed to succeed if we work hard enough. We're not being allowed to work at all!