Lewis County Herald - Serving Hohenwald, Lewis County Tennessee Since 1898

By Iska Hoole, Legal Aid Society

Not everyone can relate to the challenges of people with criminal records or view them as a vulnerable population. Some Tennesseans may not realize that they themselves are likely to have a neighbor, co-worker, friend or family member with a criminal record.

In fact, as the Wall Street Journal reported in 2015, around one in three Americans has been arrested at some point during their adulthood. It is in everyone’s best interest that this section of our population succeed.

According to the Prison Policy Initiative, people who were formerly incarcerated ar...