Partner Spotlight: St. Louis University Center for Social Action
About the Center for Social Action
Saint Louis University’s Center for Social Action encourages lifelong personal and social responsibility by transforming student volunteers into effective servant leaders and advocates for social justice. The Center works under the Division of Diversity and Innovative Community Engagement whose mission is to establish a culture of inclusive excellence, equity, and human flourishing for all members of the University and our connected communities through education, elimination, and transformation.
Our Call to Clean Slate
Being engaged on coalitions is what brought the Center for Social Action to the Clean Slate Campaign. As part of the larger Jesuit mission, and mentioned on the Jesuit.org website, “We believe that all people are entitled to the opportunity for rehabilitation and reconciliation. We advocate for criminal justice reform, including abolishing capital punishment, eliminating mandatory minimum sentencing, and strengthening support structures for re-entry.”
The words rehabilitation, reconciliation and strengthening support structures for re-entry are what come to mind when thinking about Clean Slate. Having a criminal record following individuals after they have been off parole for years, makes rehabilitation, reconciliation and reentry continuously difficult. It is a double punishment to do time and then still be followed when searching for employment, housing, and opportunities. Furthermore, Catholic Social Teaching challenges us to work towards human dignity, dignity and rights of workers, preferential options for the poor and marginalized, and the call to family, community and participation. All of these are hindered when a record follows individuals.
As an institution of higher education, we would be remiss to not also discuss data and evidence of why Clean Slate is logical. Of the individuals able to get records expunged in Missouri, only about 1% are actually successful in obtaining expungement. According to the Center for American Progress, Nearly 9 in 10 employers, 4 in 5 landlords, and 3 in 5 colleges use background checks to screen for applicants’ criminal records. Furthermore, they state “Economists estimate that the cost of barring these individuals from the workforce is roughly $78 to $87 billion in lost gross domestic product annually. One study found that putting to work just 100 of such individuals in Philadelphia would increase their lifetime earnings by $55 million, income tax contributions by $1.9 million, and sales tax contributions by $770,000.”
According to the Prison Policy Initiative, the strongest predictor for recidivism is poverty. The unemployment rate of formerly incarcerated people is 27% and the rate of homelessness is 5,700 people per 100,000. As seen from the aforementioned data, lifetime earnings increased significantly when formerly incarcerated individuals were not barred from the workplace due to their criminal background.
Ultimately, we support Clean Slate in Missouri because it is part of our University mission and values. Clean Slate is smart on crime, boosts the state’s economy, and increases racial equity.
