“Do we as a people believe in redemption? That someone who made even a grievous mistake as a young person can redeem themselves and change, lead a productive life again, as a parent, as a member of society? Because, lacking more creative thinking to devise alternative ways of repaying a debt to society, we incarcerate more people than most other countries in the world. And then, when the debt has been repaid, often with disproportionately longer sentences than deserved, we insist on holding nonviolent ex-offenders to second-class citizenship in so many ways and for too many years — often ensuring hopelessness and recidivism. Imagine how that would feel.

“Recently, I have attended several meetings of the Lynchburg City Schools School Board where young fathers, ex-offenders, pleaded for the opportunity to volunteer in their children’s schools, currently prohibited by LCS…”