RI: You’re allowed to get a job… we’ll just make sure you can’t keep it.

In Rhode Island, a story is unfolding that perfectly captures the contradiction at the heart of the registry system. A man working as a property manager was arrested after his status became known. The issue we want to highlight is not that he was arrested for not disclosing his work – that’s the law, he didn’t report his work, he was arrested, that’s not the issue… It’s that while the state allows you to get a job, they just ensure there’s no way you can keep it.

While the guy’s work as a property manager is legal, he is required to report the properties he manages to law enforcement, and police are then required to notify each tenant that he is a registrant. So the law allows the job, but builds in a mechanism that all but guarantees it won’t last.

What’s the realistic outcome of that kind of requirement? What’s the likelihood that once police “inform” tenants, an employer or property owner is going to keep him in that role for more than a day? The answer is obvious. Zero!

We’re told that people on the registry should work, should support themselves, should find housing, should reintegrate into society. But how is that possible when every step toward reintegration comes with a built-in trigger that undermines it? If getting and holding a job requires wearing a proverbial scarlet letter that follows you into your workplace, every interaction, and every opportunity, the result is pre-determined: you get let go. Simply getting a job with this stigma is hard enough!

We are highlighting cases like these (people who get fired from maintenance work, hauling trash, serving coffee at Starbucks, etc.) not to highlight an individual’s failure to comply. They reflect a system that says “you can work”, but only in theory. In practice, the outcome is already decided. So if you want to support your family, if you want to eat, if you want a roof over your head, you gotta do what you gotta do to survive.