More Than a Record: Jonas’s Fight for Opportunity and Dignity

By VOTE Members Julia Cass and Jonas Laurant

Jonas Laurant recently applied for a part-time job at a crisis center in Jefferson Parish. With a record of mostly addiction-related offenses and occasional incarceration in parish prisons, he knows the barriers to finding employment.

Sometimes, employers take a chance. He now works for the Metropolitan Health and Human Services District supporting men with mental health challenges after they leave the Orleans Justice Center. Other times, he makes it through interviews and even job offers—only to be told later that his background disqualified him. Once, he’d already bought winter clothes for a position up North before the rejection came.

Several times I’ve been offered jobs, only later to be notified that oh your background, your background, your background. I can’t change my past. All I can do is be the person that I am today you know and live on. I’m not the person that I was years ago, and I did my time you know. I shouldn’t have to pay for this for the rest of my life. There’s people out there being discriminated against for past transgressions that have nothing at all to do with the job at hand.

Several times I’ve been offered