First of all let me say that the easiest way to not be labeled as a felon would be to not commit a felony. This in itself would negate the negative affects of the labeling.

Now, as for how to combat the negativity of the labeling factor, post felony. In order to keep recidivism down, we must educate our inmates to allow for them to better themselves while incarcerated. We must then reward those who have taken the opportunity to better themselves by removing the felon label when they are released from prison. For those individuals that choose not to better themselves by going to school and getting an education, or learning a trade or skill that will benefit them once released, there is nothing that can be done. We as a society did not label those individuals as felons, they did that for themselves. If we, as a society choose to try and help them and they refuse, what more can we do, it isn't like we owe them anything. These individuals who do decide to learn not only from their mistake, but from the educational opportunities would be given a "second chance" education. (Maeyer, 2001) The issue with a program like this is that we have to ensure that the individuals that do take advantage of an offer such as this are made to reimburse the system by some means. If we do not, we are opening ourselves up to the invitation of people to become criminally active in hopes of a free education.
A second way to combat this problem would be to invite the inmates to join a