Certified diversity executive, host of Diversity: Beyond the Checkbox podcast and Head of Content for The Diversity Movement, Jackie Ferguson, explains: As a society, we don’t always extend empathy to incarcerated and formerly-incarcerated people the way we do to other underserved groups. In fact, I’d say bias often leads us to believe their marginalization is somehow deserved or, at the very least, defensible. Yet if more people understood the reality of our criminal justice system — from wrongful convictions to the large number of people in prison because of small-time drug offenses — they might feel differently. They might even give formerly-incarcerated people a fresh chance at building a career and contributing positively to our workplaces and communities.
