In all societies, the stigma of criminal convictions and sentences of imprisonment creates difficulties for ex-offenders when they try to secure employment, find housing, form relationships, or resettle in the outside world. But in the United States, these de facto social consequences of conviction are exacerbated by a set of de jure legal consequences that extend and intensify the sanction in multiple ways. Disenfranchisement, either temporary or permanent; disqualification from public office and jury service; ineligibility for federal housing benefits, education benefits, and welfare assistance; liability to court costs and prison fees; exclusion from various licensed occupations; banishment from specified urban areas; and where the offender is a noncitizen, deportation-all of these concomitants of a criminal conviction for millions of individuals.