Prometheus 6

Never-ending debt to society
By hanna ingber win, October 25, 2007 9:43 am

I spot a very tall man with broad shoulders. He’s sporting a sharp pinstriped suit, sunglasses and Bluetooth piece on his ear. He’s standing on the sidewalk, staring straight ahead, like a security guard. We are outside a job fair, and I assume he works there.

Tony Scarbough, 45 and from Los Angeles, turns out to be an ex-offender.

He’s at the job fair because he has spent the past ten years trying to get a job with the city or state, but without success.

Tony used to do drugs and alcohol and got in trouble with the law a number of times. His convictions include possession of cocaine, receiving stolen property and grand theft auto.

In 1994 Tony was released from prison and has been clean ever since. “I’ve been drug and alcohol free for about thirteen years,” he says. He turned his life around, getting married in 1998, having a child and holding down a job at a retail store.

Yet despite his efforts to get his life together, the felony convictions still hang over his head.

“I go to church, I’ve been presently employed, I pay taxes, I own a home, I have kids, and still this thing’s been hovering over me like a shadow,” he says.