POSITIVE Justice Gloucestershire took as the subject for their July lunchtime forum in Tewkesbury: ‘Legal discrimination: is it fair?’

Two ex-prisoners told of the discrimination they faced on release.

Discrimination includes finding a job, getting insurance, mortgage difficulties.

Families of ex-offenders continue to be punished for the crimes of their relations, even when the sentence has been served.

If they admit to having a criminal record when seeking work, they do not get an interview.

If they decide to lie in order to feed their family, they lose the job if discovered.

They live with constant worry that this will slip out.

One of our speakers spoke movingly of this, and of how a prison sentence is a permanent stain on a person, likening it to a tattoo, which cannot be removed.

Lack of employment leads to re-offending which costs tax payers £11 billion per year; 9.2 million people in the UK have a criminal record, more than the population of Greater London.

In one American state, when it was made illegal for employers to insist on knowing if an applicant had a criminal record, reoffending dropped dramatically from 58 per cent in 2004 to 5.7 per cent in 2008.

A representative from Gloucestershire police in the audience told us of the work done by the police’s ‘Avenger Task Force’, working with young people thought likely to offend: going into schools to warn students that a prison sentence can be a life sentence.

All this discrimination is legal: but is it fair?