Columbia’s Sarah Zarba: ‘I have a felony conviction but I’m not a violent person’

Welcome to the second profile in our Ban The Box series. We’re interviewing Columbia’s campaigners fighting to get rid of The Box, which asks formerly-incarcerated people to declare their criminal records on application forms for jobs and college.

Before we get into our next profile, I want to first talk about the language our society uses to describe people like Leyla Martinez, who was the focus of my last profile, and Sarah who will be the focus of this profile. Recently the New York Post did a piece on Leyla and Sarah focusing on their Beyond the Box initiative. After I had completed my interviews, Leyla shared the Post article with me. She also expressed how hurt she was at the language used to describe her and Sarah. Right in the headline of the article it refers to Sarah as an armed robber.

It then goes on to call Leyla and Sarah felons in the same paragraph where it was talking about their efforts to get rid of the words “felon” and “ex-convict” from college applications. I think it was unnecessary to use this type of language to refer to their backgrounds, especially when they have beaten the odds to be able to attend a school like Columbia. Before I interviewed them, I had a conversation with them about the language they wanted used, as they did with the person who wrote the Post article. I will respect their wishes because they have certainly earned my respect.

Now before I am labeled chief of the PC police, it is important to think about the impact using this language has on people who are trying to reintegrate themselves into society and be productive citizens. Aside from the fact this language can be unnecessarily hurtful and discouraging, the negative connotations attached to words such as “prisoner”, “ex-con”, “felon”, and “criminal” can be detrimental to their chances at getting into jobs and higher education – which will keep themselves from becoming incarcerated again.

But if you’re one of the people who feel the need to refer to formerly incarcerated persons as “felons” or “ex-cons” in order to claim some sort of moral high ground then I think that says more about your character than theirs.

So meet Columbia student Sarah Zarba, from Long Island – the second person I interviewed in our Ban The Box series. She’s studying at Columbia’s School of Social Work.

The first time I was ever in handcuffs, I was 14 years old. The police were called to my house for something that happened at home. I didn’t actually commit a crime, it was a status offense, which is an act committed by a minor that is criminalized. I was always running away, I got kicked out of two different schools. I was in court so many times by the time I was 18. But the time I turned 19, I was in for an adult charge. I got caught up in a robbery.

I had no social support in the community. The policies of the school district were: more suspension, when really they could have kept me at the same school to address my needs.

When I arrived in jail aged 19, I was completely desensitized to the process of court, having gone through it as a young girl. While you’re inside, all you have is time. We weren’t allowed any physical possessions, except for books and really bad shampoo. That was all I had.

After I came out of jail, I had nowhere to go. So I went to a program, and had such a difficult time getting a job. I would go into every interview, and once I checked “yes” on The Box, people would tell me: “Oh please leave, we’re not hiring anymore.” I had a really difficult time.

How many trials are you going to put me on? How many times are you going to sentence me, over and over, when I’m trying to move forward with my life.

My willingness to work in society when I came home as a convicted felon was not enough. Just wanting to provide for myself wasn’t enough to get me a job. I knew I needed something bigger, so that’s why I decided to pursue higher education.

Nobody can decide retroactively to take that away from me, that’s something that I I earned. And no-one can come back and say: “That’s not yours anymore.” When I have my degree from Columbia University, nobody can challenge that. I put the work in.

When I made the decision to want to come to Columbia, I put my application out out there, and when I got to The Box, I froze. I ran the risk of not completing it altogether, because I felt that I’d be rejected. I couldn’t take any more of that rejection. I’ve been in this system as a little girl and as an adult. I was afraid I wouldn’t be accepted. Nobody’s talking about this at the university. I’m a white woman, and there’s a lot of other students who look like me in this school but may not have had the same experiences I’ve had.

The reason I want to get involved at Columbia in this campaign is because I want to bring awareness to this. I have the same dreams that everyone else in the school has, and it shouldn’t be an obstacle in my way to achieve them. It should be equal across the board.

When you come home from prison, you have nothing. Everything is stripped away from you when you’re inside. The mark of a criminal record is so hard to get past. There are enough obstacles as it is – just getting public assistance is hard enough. An obstacle in the path to bettering yourself is not going to work.

I have a violent felony conviction. But I’m not a violent person. Just because it’s my charge, it doesn’t make me who I am. We shouldn’t exclude people who have had any touch with this system, because it’s affecting so many people. Mass incarceration is a generational thing now.

Everybody deserves a second chance. I don’t care what you did. We know from research that if you have a violent offense, that doesn’t predict recidivism. If you commit a violent act, it doesn’t mean you’re going to do it again. We shouldn’t exclude anyone from having a second chance.

@geneaiken03