He's willing to work for little more than room and board, though for that day and age, more compensation would have usually been expected for such a skilled craft.
The blacksmith, no fool, holds out a hand to shake on the deal. The stranger hesitantly reaches out his hand, whereupon the smith grabs his wrist, pulls him forward and turns his arm so the stranger's palm is showing.
A "T" is shown, plainly and obviously branded upon the stranger's palm. The "T" is for "thief" and can be for as little as bread stolen to feed a child, or as "much" as a pheasant poached on the King's preserve.
The smithy shakes his head and doesn't even have to tell the stranger to move on. He already is moving on. Hoping that perhaps in the next town someone will finally take a chance on him, and wondering what he can forage for in the woods that night to tide him over.
Barbaric, true. And utterly un-Christian, as it showed a society that while giving lip service to Christianity and the concept of self-improvement and redemption, was making sure that any sin once committed would forever be paid for, over and over, and never be escaped this side of the grave.
And what is really sad about that?
That the practice continues 500 years later in the United States of America. You can find it on any job application that asks if you have ever been convicted of a crime, with the lying disclaimer that a "yes" answer will "not necessarily" bar you from employment. Spoiler alert: It will.
In an economy of more available workers wishing work than there are jobs, of course it will! A company is looking at 100 applications for each job, and what easier way to whittle down the number of interviews needed to give than setting aside the 33% that will have a record?
And what person doesn't know that finding a person's brand - er, "record" - is just a mouse click away? For free in some cases, for the most minimal of fees in other cases.
Even in the cases where a company might be inclined to give a chance, our courts make that impossible, as civil courts would be quick to grant relief to any who sued over being hurt or robbed by an employee with a record. Why then would a corporation take a chance?
We live in a nation that has a larger percent of it's citizens in jail or prison than any other nation in history. More than China, more than Cuba, more than the former Soviet Union or Nazi Reich. Yes, really.
Each person who suffers prison, or even "just" jail, has two punishments. The one named and the real one later. The punishment named is light - a night in jail, at the least, and maybe 5 years in prison at the most for non-violent crimes. Sometimes even probation, a fine or community service.
Upon their release, the second punishment kicks in, and that is where in a society based mainly on the concept of "those who do not toil shall not eat", they are forbade from toiling at any meaningful job they could care for - and many less meaningful jobs that they soon enough find themselves eager to be gave a chance at.
Nearly one out of three Americans now has had some kind of arrest, and a good many of those have records of some crime or the other, most small, many victimless. This has created a vast class of the underemployable or unemployable that face hardship quite unimaginable to those who have never been branded by the internet.
It is true that each affected obviously made a poor choice in the past, though sometimes it was not so much a poor choice as just being in the wrong nation for any kind of error in judgment.
We live in a nation where not only can you have a record for a "crime" that had no victim, you can in too many cases be made to plead out to a crime you did not do because the prosecutor is threatening a far worse punishment if you take it to trial. It's a Russian Roulette, where you can plead out and get "just" probation for a thing you didn't do - or let it go to court, and if your public defender is valueless (and they always are valueless) you'll go up for years.
Myself, I have three misdemeanor convictions, and while one was my own sin/crime, two were ones that were false and could have been fought were I to have had any ability to hire a private attorney. Admittedly alcohol, stupidity and such put me in positions where I could have that happen, but it was wrong for that to happen to me all the same.
Too many others find themselves in that position - where if they had money for a private attorney, they could confidently say, "I'll take the trial", but without one they know that it would be suicide to do anything but take the plea.
So they take the plea, and get a lesser sentence for that which they did not do - and then face a lifetime of difficulty in the simple act of seeking work to live. This isn't a secret. It isn't denied. Those who run the system have no difficulty in admitting this. It is not solely the complaint of alkies and druggies trying to duck responsibility. You can hear of this from judges and lawyers and police, too.
I have watched this branding come to be and become iron-clad in the course of my own lifetime, and I am only 47. I have seen how pre-internet, nothing but a felony could in any way impact your chances of getting a job, and even in those cases, simply moving to another state would let most have a second chance. The glory days of infinite chances or renewal and redemption, which honestly, was a part of what made this nation so special. That any man could - by right - wake up, grow up, and start again fresh.
Later, after the net, my first misdemeanor was not too large an issue, though many jobs were closed off almost at once. By many, I refer to the professional type of jobs where people are "upper middle class". I still had my same IQ and education, but I could almost hear the 1,000 doors closing for that first plea.
Still, though, in the nineties and noughts, there were still many places not entirely adverse to a misdemeanor. Yet as the years progressed, and the access to records became cheaper and more instantly available, it got worse and worse. Background checks, once reserved for Top Secret security clearances or positions of fiduciary trust involving millions of dollars, became so routine that even janitors and delivery boys would be given a check more thorough than the FBI would have done in the eighties.
Part of it being worse for me personally was having a second misdemeanor, but honestly, for awhile in the noughts, that second one still wasn't keeping me from a lot of the blue collar jobs. Nor was the third - not at first.
But sometime in the late noughts and early teens, the trap closed much more - at least that's what I've seen in my own experience. It has culminated recently in my applying for work at both Walmart and Labor Ready, and being turned down from each, for my "record".
My record being three misdemeanors, non-violent, all more than ten years old. And the only one I really did, over 20 years old. But once you get that first, fighting a second and third is nearly impossible, unless OJ's lawyer is willing to do some pro bono for you.
There are many reasons for the sober living home that I founded and operate, all involving those who have succumbed to alcoholism and addiction being needful of a second - or 102nd - chance. This place is a safe and affordable haven for those who have only recently got out of prison or jail, or a rehabilitative program, and want to move forward.
It lets them have room and board, utilities and internet and a washer and dryer, all for only $50 a week. This way they have breathing room to build habits of sobriety and look about for such work that is possible to them, and save money to one day get an apartment.
For the most part, in just over two years of having guests, I have seen that if they cannot do construction work, if they cannot get on with contractors, then their chances are greatly diminished. And involve dish washing at locally owned restaurants (the chains are more picky) or a variety of under the table jobs, obviously mostly involving manual/menial labor.
This tells me two things. One, it tells me that this is definitely a very valuable service we are providing to those in need who are trying to reform and recover. If there were not safe places for so little money that donating plasma can pay the fee, many of these men would be reduced to sleeping on a mat on a floor at the one homeless shelter in town, or finding a bridge not being used and sheltering under that.
(So keep supporting our efforts!)
The second thing it tells me is that we need a lot more of the "ban the box" movements that have popped up in some states. If you look into it, you'll find that at least a dozen states have passed measures to "ban the box". Or so it seems. A closer look shows that they simply "delay" when an employer can check on an applicant.
What really needs to happen, and at once, are the following reforms:
1. Immediately withhold all misdemeanor convictions from the public record, and only have them available to Law Enforcement and the Courts.
2. Forbid every corporation and company from seeking to learn of misdemeanors, so that they then can never be sued or otherwise held to be civilly liable for hiring those with non-felony offenses.
3. Have a ten year rule for felonies, so that after one decade of NO further offenses of any kind, the felony would be as sealed as the misdemeanors - that is, only available to Law Enforcement and Courts.
4. Forbid corporations and companies from seeking to learn of any felony older than 10 years. The only thing the box could ask is "Have you been convicted of a felony at any time in the last ten years?"
5. Make it a crime for any private agency to in any way collect, hold, buy, sell, or distribute any personal criminal data. By making it the sole province of the courts themselves, it will not only guarantee compliance with the law, but would be a great way of generating more revenue for local courts. Let them get the $5 to $50 fee for such checks.
6. Make discrimination based upon a criminal record the same type of crime as discrimination based upon race. This would put enforcement under the EEOC of each state, and make companies and corporations civilly liable for any systematic prejudices against those who already paid their debt to society.
And yet since those six things are unlikely to happen any time soon, in the meanwhile I again urge everyone to support as best they can any charity - ours or others - that offer halfway homes, sober living homes, group homes and such so that those who have been branded for life can have a place to live where they can figure out how to proceed. Where they can have time to find those few who still will give them a chance. Where they can have the time to apply to the one hundred companies in the hopes that eventually one will say "yes".
So they don't have to have that horrible feeling of knowing that they cannot make enough money to have a place to stay, so why even try? That they don't have time to get everything in order after their rehab is done, so why even try? That there's no one to give them a seventh - or seventieth - chance, even though they know they're serious this time, so why hit their head against the brick wall of societal indifference? There's enough stacked against them - yes, due to their poor choices before - including those background checks.
Without group homes of all varieties, there'd be no hope for the convict, the alcoholic, the addict, and all who seek another chance.
The weather is cooler now. The need is great. $20 to a person on a corner means money for the liquor store owner or a bump of crack. $20 to a sober living home means hope for those who really wish to do better, and need that chance to redeem themselves.
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