Rehabilitation

For as long as there have been convictions in America, there has been talk of rehabilitation. What does that word even mean? Is the act of getting out of prison, or completing court-ordered sundries? Does that automatically prove that the prior criminal is free from his evil trappings?

I am a convicted felon. I forged a prescription and was convicted of "Attempt to Obtain CDS." That was four years ago. Since then, I completed the court-ordered drug rehabilitation program, reported to every probation meeting, completed by B.A., completed my Graduate Certificate in Technical Writing, and got my Master's in English (with a concentration in Technical Writing and pre-1600 British Literature). I raised my daughter during all of this, while also producing a second offspring -- through an extremely difficult preganancy, followed by 8 days in the NICU for my son and a year full of sickness for the poor little guy. I am published by the Professional Communication Society for the IEEE. I am a respected freelance editor. I am a "natural" technical writer, with an eye for details and an extraordinary ability to research things that others would hang their heads in confusion over.

My ability to rehabilitate, however, has not merited me a job. Because I am a felon, I cannot have a job handling money. I cannot own a gun (not that I want one). I cannot be taken as a serious candidate for a job b/c I am high risk. Meanwhile, others in the same situation turn to selling drugs or stolen goods while I try to just make it day by day.

Rehabilitation does not exist in the Land of the Free. The abhored class system defeated in Old England lives on today in America, despite the few...the proud..the rehabilitated felons desperate to put their talents to use.

Give me a chance America.