Once you’re labeled a felon, the old forms of discrimination—employment discrimination, housing discrimination, denial of the right to vote, denial of educational opportunity, denial of food stamps and other public benefits, and exclusion from jury service—are suddenly legal.
Makes you think again about the reasons that legislators enacted certain crimes. When you add in the loophole to the 13th amendment, it makes it even more clear because a violation of a vagrancy statute meant you could enslave that person. Even if the law was racially enacted and administered.
