Advocates hope Atlanta ordinance protecting the formerly incarcerated is just first step – WABE

A current ordinance handed by the town of Atlanta establishes previously incarcerated folks as a protected class.

The push to move the regulation was led by Barred Enterprise, a company that helps folks after they’re launched from incarceration.

Bridgette Simpson is the co-founder and co-director of Barred Enterprise, and was previously incarcerated herself for 10 years.

Simpson spoke to WABE’s Jim Burress about what it took to get the ordinance handed, and what’s subsequent.

She says legal guidelines like Atlanta’s imply the world to individuals who have been denied many alternatives based mostly on a criminal offense for which they’d supposedly already been punished. She labored with metropolis councilmembers to advocate for and craft the laws.

“I used to be in a position to clarify to him step-by-step simply the hardship that we endure each day, simply persevering with to be ostracized by our communities,” stated Simpson.”  There’s 44,000 collateral penalties that encompass justice impacted folks, considered one of which is adoption.”

Simpson says she hopes to subsequent push for related [protections on the state and federal level, and to eventually have the 1964 Civil Rights Act amended to include the formerly incarcerated.