I found it rather interesting how Alexander started the chapter off by mentioning Frederick Douglass and his fight against slavery. Alexander compared those who were released from prison to the slaves who were “free by law.” Just as these former slaves were not truly free, people who are freed from prison are still subject to much hate and prejudice. A fine example of this is when a felon asked for an application for housing and he was denied on the grounds that he was an ex-felon.

The reason for such hate is the stigma society places on those who have been to prison. Those who have served jail time are extremely frowned upon and the whole idea of going to prison is heavily stigmatized. Another point to note is that because of this stigmatization, a good majority of those who are released from prison are caught in this cycle of coming back home, finding no job/housing, and going back to prison for committing a petty crime (which they probably needed to commit in order to sustain themselves).

At the end of all this, I find myself asking if our country is ever going to progress if we keep denying people who’ve committed some wrong second chances.