Business owners with criminal records left out of aid program
WASHINGTON — Damon West was hoping the government’s coronavirus rescue package for smallbusiness owners would help replace the income he’s lost now that he can’t travel the country as a keynote speaker.
But he got a call from his accountant. A question on the application form asked whether, within the last five years, he had been convicted of or pleaded guilty or no contest to a felony or “been placed on any form of parole or probation.”
Another asked whether anyone who owns at least 20% of the company was incarcerated, under indictment, on probation or parole. If so, they are ineligible.
It was a gut punch for West.
In 2009, he was sentenced to life in prison but made parole in 2015 and works as an author, teacher and speaker, visiting schools and correctional facilities to talk about how he turned his life around.
“You go and you pay your debt, and you’re still paying your bill,” he said.
The Paycheck Protection Program, which already doled out $350 billion and is awaiting another cash infusion, is supposed to be a lifeline for businesses teetering on the edge, helping them stay afloat and keep their employees on the payroll during the pandemic. Independent contractors and those who are self-employed also qualify. But not if they have had certain run-ins with the law.
The Small Business Administration, which oversees the program, did not respond to questions about why the exclusions had been added.
But ineligible would-be applicants and advocates say the restrictions are a slap in the face for those who have served their time, especially from an administration that has trumpeted second chances. They note many businesses run by formerly incarcerated people employ other people with criminal records who could be driven back to crime if they lose jobs.
Robert Rooks, co-founder of the Alliance for Safety and Justice, a national criminal justice reform organization, said he’d heard from multiple small-business owners frustrated by the provision.
“I’m hearing that people have worked their entire life to get to this place where they have something they can call their own. They’ve paid their debt to society, clawed their way to this point, and should be able to get what everybody else is able to get to keep their business afloat,“he said.
For West, who lives in southeast Texas and describes himself as the “poster child” of someone who reformed their life after prison for organizing dozens of burglaries, the restriction “felt kind of like a kick in the gut, a punch in the gut,” especially given the administration’s talk of second chances.
“If this administration truly feels like those that have done their time should have a second chance, those that have paid their debt should get a second chance,” then the rule doesn’t make sense, he said.
President Donald Trump achieved a rare bipartisan victory in 2018 when he signed criminal justice reform legislation called the “First Step Act.” He has since highlighted efforts to help formerly incarcerated people find jobs and talked about helping the “forgotten.”.
His campaign spent millions on a Super Bowl ad that featured the story of Alice Marie Johnson, a nonviolent drug offender whose life sentence Trump commuted after reality TV star Kim Kardashian West championed her case.
Johnson said Monday that she was aware of the small business rule and and that she and others had succeeded in getting the administration to exempt those with misdemeanor records and to shorten the time frame for convictions from seven to five years.
“I’m so sorry for the small-business owners,” she said, blaming the speed with which the program had been pulled together. “It’s really heartbreaking that this couldn’t have been fixed. We are ringing this bell of what is going on. I want you to know that we are not being silent on this.”