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.
For the job in Jefferson Parish, which would be a step up from his current position, he was interviewed and the program officer called him later to say she was hoping to schedule him. A few days later, he got an email that listed his offenses and asked him to explain the circumstances that led to them. He was also asked to describe the steps he had taken since then to change and to make any statement he thought would be appropriate.
“I sent in all the answers,” he said. “It brought back a lot of old feelings and a lot of that stuff I try to forget. But I keep a level head.”
Jonas has been sober for seven years. “Every day I do something for my recovery,” he said. “It helps to get out of myself and help someone else. It keeps me grounded. The person I was then is not the person I am now.” He said he was thinking positively about getting the job – and he did.
Jonas’s journey shows what so many people with records face: doors slammed shut, not because of who they are today, but because of a past they’ve already paid for.
That’s why the Fair Chance Amendment matters. By putting basic protections into our city’s highest law, New Orleans takes a concrete step toward giving people with conviction histories real opportunities to work, contribute, and thrive.
Listen to Jonas speak about his experience.