Being charged with a felony offense means that you will spend the rest of your life paying for breaking the law. It doesn’t matter if it is your first or hundredth, it follows you forever. It all depends on the state you reside in as to how badly it will haunt you. Some states have laws that make it nearly impossible to find a decent job after you have been convicted of a crime.
There are many people who say that it’s a good thing. That is what keeps people from committing crimes in the first place. That could well be true. The problem isn’t that someone is punished for the crimes they commit. It is the word “rehabilitation” that can throw a convicted felon for a loop.
Here is an example: If you have a felony conviction and you seek a decent paying job, you find yourself hitting your head against a wall. It doesn’t matter what the crime was. It only matters that it was a felony conviction. Many employers run background checks before they will hire you. When that conviction comes up, the chances of you getting hired is zero.
There are other issues at hand as well. If you like to hunt, you won’t be able to do that anymore. Regardless of whether the conviction had anything to do with violence, you won’t be allowed to be in possession of any guns for the rest of your life. That is a pretty hard blow to someone who wants to protect him/herself in his/her own home or someone who enjoys hunting. If you are caught with these items, it could send you to prison.
Voting is affected as well. Some states have a time limit on voting, but you can count on being without the right for many years to come. Some states still insist, through laws, that you cannot ever vote again if you have a felony conviction. It doesn’t matter what the crime was, it only matters that it was a felony. Some states will allow you to vote again. It is usually after your time has been served and can be up to seven years before you will be given the right to vote again. For someone that made an error in judgment one moment in his/her life, that is a pretty harsh punishment.
Loans are much harder to get after a conviction as well. Many banks have also started the practice of doing background checks when you apply for a loan. If you have a felony conviction, you won’t get the loan. The same can be held true with the ability to get a credit card.
Your reputation takes the hardest hit. People never look at you the same way again. They often wonder if you would do that to them. They don’t want to be around someone who has been convicted of something so horrible. This holds true even when they don’t know the reason why it happened in the first place.
A felony offense can be anything from murder or rape to stealing something that is worth over three hundred dollars. It can be a minor drug conviction as well. Those who cold bloodedly murder innocent people are the same as those who stole, possibly to help feed their family when times are hard. It is all the same in the eyes of the law.
If you are doing something that you know is wrong, stop and think about it hard first. You may not know what you are getting yourself into. Breaking the law is wrong, there is no doubt about that. Just make sure you are willing to pay the steep price for it in the end.
