Utahâs licensing boards discriminate against ex-offenders
Picture this. A young man falls into poverty and, out of desperation, resorts to petty theft in order to help feed his family. He gets caught and is sentenced to a few months in prison as punishment for committing a Class B misdemeanor. While serving out his time, the young man reflects on his past mistake, vowing to never resort to such acts again, and dedicates himself to pursuing a better life...
After having dumped hundreds of hours and dollars into the process, he later finds out that his licensure application was denied. Why? A licensing board consisting of landscape architects (who benefit from gatekeeping to decrease competition) subjectively decided that he did not meet the requirement of having a âgood moral character,â using his criminal record as âevidence,â despite the crime being completely unrelated to the practice of landscape architecture and occurring long in the past. Now, not only is the young man continuing to be indirectly punished for a mistake he has served time for, but he is also being denied his right to practice his desired occupation. This has the potential to banish him to a life of limited social and financial mobility and push him into tough situations where he may choose to recidivate in order to meet his familyâs basic needs.
This is problematic as many ex-offenders may find themselves denied licenses for occupations that have nothing to do with the crimes they committed in the past. It also dissuades ex-offenders from pursuing licenses as it requires a lot of money and time to pass through the licensing process to the point of board consideration and decision. These licensing denials do not make Utahns any safer. Ironically, they accomplish the opposite, as the limiting of economic opportunities for ex-offenders only helps create desperate situations that foster the repeating of crimes..... (Read More)
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