After the well-publicized release from prison of one of the world’s most famous convicts, Martha Stewart, The New York Sun’s Catriona Stuart spoke with the director of the new Prisoner Reentry Institute at John Jay College, Debbie Mukamal, about problems that face former inmates.

Q. You write frequently about the legal barriers that former prisoners confront once they are released from prison. What are those legal barriers?

A. There are a range of barriers that affect almost every aspect of a person’s life. There are certain kinds of jobs an ex-convict is not allowed to hold, particularly positions in health care and education. In some states there are restrictions on whether or not a person can receive public assistance or food stamps, and even if they will be allowed to hold a driver’s license. Some of these restrictions can be lifelong exclusions for people convicted of drug crimes.

What else can stand in the way of successful reintegration?

In addition to the legal barriers, there are many practical barriers to people that are connected to being incarcerated. I’ll give you an example. A noncustodial parent who goes to prison and fails to alert the child support agency will come out of prison and owe, let’s say, somewhere between $15,000 or $20,000 in back child support. Because they owe these child support payments, a significant portion of the wages they earn from any job will be garnished. They might get to take home only 50% of a small paycheck. If you don’t have the resources that you need to get back on your feet again, it makes life very difficult and can eliminate a lot of the motivation people have for continuing on the reintegration process.

How do ex-convicts react to being confronted with these types barriers on the outside?

Having the door slammed in their face? I think it gives people a feeling of social exclusion, of having a scarlet “A” that they wear with them for a very long time. There are efforts being made on the state and federals levels to address some of these issues. I think when many of these laws were passed, the full extent of the consequences that they would have on people’s lives were not fully recognized.

When were most of these laws passed?

A lot of them were passed in the 1990s. Many were passed in different kinds of committees and sometimes buried into budget bills, which did not provide for a full discussion of these laws. … This permits a kind of piling on of different laws without lawmakers being aware that the piling on is happening.

If this only affects people with a criminal background, many people might ask why they should care. What kind of response would you give them?

It’s a very good question. And there are two primary reasons people should care. We cannot afford to keep incarcerating people. There are more than 2 million incarcerated in our country right now, and more than 7 million who are under some kind of criminal-justice provisions, like parole. The likelihood that an ex-convict is going to recidivate … is quite high. The cost of that cycle is exorbitant for taxpayers.

How many people are affected by this?

There are about 650,000 people who come out of prison every year, both state and federal prison. That underestimates how many people we are talking about, however.

About 12 or 13 million cycle in and out of local jails every year and are not accounted for in that figure. And when we just focus on the 650,000 people, we ignore the large number of people who come home and continue to face challenges because they have a criminal record. With the large number of employers who now do background checks, an individual who has a 20-year-old conviction could still face challenges based on having a criminal record.

How does New York rate in the treatment of those with a criminal past?

New York, in terms of legal restrictions, is probably better than most states. In New York there is actually a law that prohibits employers from discriminating against someone based solely on the fact that they have a conviction record. If you apply for a job in New York and you answer that you have been convicted of a crime, the employer is required to make a case-by-case determination about whether or not the conviction is pertinent to the job. Does discrimination happen in New York? Absolutely.