Michael Clark got out of jail in 2013. But he arguably got his first true taste of freedom when he landed a full-time job.
“Just having something positive to do is very important,’’ says Clark, who once dealt drugs. The 24-year-old said that earning $20 an hour doing construction work has enabled him to get his own apartment in Brooklyn.
But finding a job took years.
“They had those questions, and I just used to check ‘yeah’ because I wanted to be honest about the situation,’’ he said about queries regarding whether he had previously been convicted of a crime. “I applied everywhere, and I didn’t hear back at all. So it was really difficult for me…trying to survive.’’