Today, Darrington works as a licensed real estate salesman and drives with Uber. He has provided thousands of rides and receives consistently high ratings from his customers. But it wasn’t always this way. He had to overcome multiple rejections over a year to get his real estate license after serving time in prison.
“You should give people a second chance to prove themselves.”
Darrington’s not alone. Across the U.S., millions of people struggle to get back on their feet after paying their debt to society for past mistakes. Studies show a past criminal conviction of any sort reduced the likelihood of a job offer by 50 percent, even though one-third of Americans are arrested by age 23. As a result, 70 million Americans with criminal records are barred—by law or stigma—from contributing to the economy.