Hold it Against Us: The Argument for Open Borders, Postconviction

I've learned that depending on what criminal offense one has committed and served time for, one cannot visit many other countries around the world. This means that in a number of cases, a person who was arrested, tried and adjudicated guilty, or signed a plea to receive sentencing, has served their complete sentence in an American prison (you know, that patchwork network of developing nations operating under the guise of states) cannot travel internationally to visit other places.

Closed Borders

I am eminently aware that the international community makes fun of Americans for not being well-traveled, but I would like to bring up the closed borders policies that prevent so many Americans from trying to culturally educate themselves by traveling beyond their borders. Given that darn near anything can be criminalized in the USA, including crossing the street on foot at the wrong spot in some states (but not others!), a person can find themselves afoul the law for doing what they know is legal where they came from -- the rules are inconsistent in the same "country".

Aside: Street Crossing?

In Oregon, when I was last free, pedestrians have right of way on any non-highway stretch of road with regard to crossing. They can cross in the middle of the block in the 5000 block of Main Street, no zebra crossings or strobes required: it's considered an unmarked crosswalk. This was in the Oregon Driver's Manual, and surprised me a decade ago when I moved there.
In Florida, however, no such rule exists, and the rules are intentionally onerous to pedestrians to ensure automobile rights. The pedestrian is always wrong, even when crossing in a marked crosswalk on their assigned signal.

Border (Gates) Down

As someone who would have loved to travel outside of the USA once I could have budgeted for it, this news strikes me in the gut as a painful reminder that even after serving a criminal sentence, I still serve another criminal sentence that limits my view of the world to effectively where I am. It's one strike, and I am out for many destinations around the world, so it seems. No regard is given to the statistical data that shows that people who commit harder crimes typically do not go on to reoffend, nor do people who committed their crimes at a young age and have served a harsh sentence that kept them away from the world for a long time.

I think to a previous cellie when I was in the Faith and Character Based Program dorm. His crime was, in essence, breaking into unoccupied homes to steal clothing and valuables so he didn't look homeless and could buy something to eat. He'd been caught a couple of times in another state, and then caught here in Florida. Florida accelerated the charges to hit harder and do more damage to him, yielding a payload of 30 years' time.
He showed me his arrest record, sentencing paperwork, and spent time lamenting how he got the amount of time for a crime where no-one was physically injured -- only financially -- when there are people threatening lives with knives and guns getting lower sentences than his.

What boggles me is, he will likely have similar travel restrictions and never get to see the world he was born on, all for stealing a couple changes of clothing and some cash to survive. He goes home in a few years.

Sentence Already Served

It seems a bit... weighty that a country who has never heard of we who serve our time behind American concertina wire would develop laws that essentially continue and perpetuate our punishment, relegating us to the level of Google Earth and Street View with YouTube tourists or fighting motion sickness with VR Headsets tourists just to see this world we live on.
On one hand, I choose to look at the positive impact on the environment -- I'm not flying in a metal tube across the skies just to go visit the Swindon Magic Roundabout (though I am insanely curious as to how that cluster of traffic circles even works).
But on the other hand, unless things change, I do not get to meet many of the people I care about in person unless they buck travel advisories and travel to the USA, to wherever I end up after my sentence (may it not ever be Florida).

Punishments should fit the crime. I don't think this one does, by a long shot, for many people in America.