Writing in The Washington Post, Karol Mason, the assistant attorney general who leads that office, said the office adopted this change in language “to solidify the principles of individual redemption and second chances that our society stands for.” The Justice Department’s Office of Justice Programs, which supports law enforcement and criminal justice efforts across the country, on Wednesday announced that it would no longer use the words “felon” or “convict” on its website, in grant solicitations or in speeches, but would instead use “person who committed a crime” or “individual who was incarcerated.” In one particularly moving passage, she said: “I sent a letter to the governor of each state, asking them to allow citizens returning from federal prisons to exchange their federal Bureau of Prisons inmate ID card - and their authenticated release documentation - for a state-issued ID, because in order to truly rejoin society, every individual needs to be the one to tell society who they are.” The reference to former inmates as “citizens” was strikingly humanizing. Federal officials have set out to change that lexicon, so that people who have committed crimes have a better chance of being seen not as faceless abstractions, but as human beings worthy of a being back in society.Īttorney General Loretta Lynch, for example, gave a speech in Mobile, Ala., two weeks ago on re-entry programs in which she avoided objectifying nouns - like “felons” or “ex-convict” or “ex-offender” - that define people by the worst moment of their lives. Lately, the administration has also recognized that the vocabulary of incarceration - the permanently stigmatizing way we speak about people who have served time - presents a significant barrier to reintegration. The initiative has been driven by the Federal Interagency Reentry Council - a group of more than 20 government agencies - which has focused most closely on eliminating barriers to employment that have become pervasive since employers began using computer-based arrest and conviction records to screen job applicants.
#Pervasive in a sentence professional#
Got it? So try to write your own sentence – what’s a pervasive problem in your company, your school, or your country? That’s all for today – thanks for joining me, and I’ll talk to you tomorrow.The Obama administration has worked over several years to steer the country away from policies that deny tens of millions of people with criminal records jobs, housing, education, consumer credit, professional licenses and the other tools they need to forge viable, productive lives. And again we often talk about pervasive problems in society, like racism or poverty or depression, saying that they are pervasive means they affect a lot of people and wide areas of society. So the adjective pervasive simply means widespread, but as I was looking up examples, I realized that we do often tend to use it for negative things.Ī pervasive sense of inferiority would be a lack of confidence that impacts your whole life and your whole personality a pervasive disease would be one that affects many systems throughout your body. Or you could say that social media has become pervasive, because this technology has spread throughout the world and so many people use it, and it also affects our daily lives a lot. It’s something that affects a lot of people, and society in general. For example, racism is a pervasive problem in many countries. We typically use this word to describe ideas, feelings, and trends that tend to spread and not stay small. This doesn’t mean it’s good or bad, just that it tends to spread and fill the whole house. A simple example is a strong smell, maybe you cook with strong spices like curry and you could say that the smell of curry is pervasive. Something that is pervasive has the quality that it tends to spread and fill up an area, so that it ends up having a wide influence or effect. This is pervasive, with a V in the middle. Not persuasive – that’s a word meaning something that can easily persuade or convince you, change your mind. Hi students! Today’s adjective of the day is pervasive.