When Margaret was released from incarceration, she quickly realized that she would be defined by most people for the rest of her life as a felon, despite her conviction only being two years out of her entire life.

When Margaret’s friends and family characterize her, she’s a mother, a sister, a daughter, a wife, someone who loves to cook, and so much more but when she applies to jobs or discloses her past to a new friend or tells her neighbors, all of that rarely matters to them – in that moment, she is reduced again to the label that was put on her in a moment of weakness by a judge at the worst time of her life. Margaret has been grappling with the difficulty of her conviction for years and it has held her back immensely. Margaret, like so many others, deserves a second chance and it’s time she gets her chance.