As voting season draws nearer, it has become common to see people rallying to give former convicts the right to vote. However, denial of the right to vote is not the only problem that former convicts face after incarceration.

According to Hamline’s Center for Justice and Law, “…access to housing, employment, parenting and voting rights” are just a few challenges that affect former convicts. Hamline’s Center for Justice and Law is partnering with Minnesota Second Chance Coalition to bring light to the situations of former convicts all day this Thursday on Oct. 25 beginning at 9 a.m.

Jillian K. Peterson, Director of the Center for Justice and Law and Associate Professor, expressed  excitement about the topics being presented for all students and faculty. According to Peterson, the event is focused on how convictions continue to impact people for the rest of their lives.

“I think for criminal justice students and non-criminal justice students to hear directly from the voices of people who have been impacted, and to understand all of these different issues, I think that will give them a different perspective going out into any field… It will be eye-opening,” Peterson said.

There will be problems and solutions panels that go through the issues facing ex-convicts, as well as a panel that will include actual ex-convicts who face or have faced the problems that will be discussed. The event, Collateral Consequences: Life After Conviction, is for anyone who wants to learn more about these issues, regardless of whether or not they study law.

First-year Tatum Sesow is planning on attending.

“From…a forensic science perspective, I know one thing that interests me is how they have been able to solve cold cases, or they have been able to use evidence to get wrongfully-convicted people out of jail with DNA analysis…so I think it would be really cool…to learn more about it,” Sesow said.

The keynote speaker Emily Baxter, author of “We Are All Criminals” and founder and executive director of a non-profit organization, will be an enlightening addition to the aforementioned panels.

First-year Katie Steiner plans to attend the event because she is passionate, but critical, about crime and justice in the modern day.

“Personally, any place where they’re going to be slamming the American legal systems is a place I want to be,” Steiner said.

Peterson encourages all students to go to the event, despite their major or interests.

“I think it is an incredible issue for everyone to understand that coming out of prison, you face a ton of barriers that make it nearly impossible to be successful… We as a society have not done a great job of…catching people when they come out and setting them up for success, and so our recidivism rates are 67 percent. People go right back in [to prison],” Peterson said.

Collateral Consequences: Life After Conviction is free to Hamline students but offers CLE and CEU credits for $100. The event will be held in Anderson 111/112. It runs from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., and registration is required to attend. For more information about future events and to register for this event, go to the Center for Justice and Law website or follow them on Facebook.