Obscure Certificates Could Cut Down Recidivism
Frank Green · CUNY Academic Works (City University of New York) · 2014
When you’re convicted of a crime, your punishment doesn’t end with prison. Your life is harder until you die. New Yorkers with criminal histories can get these Certificates that make life a little less hard. They’re a kind of a diploma of rehabilitation. The standards for getting them aren’t that high. Most people who’ve been convicted of a crime are eligible, in theory. But hardly anybody gets them. This article is about the ignorance and legal contradictions that have made them so obscure.