Rene Guerrero, 45, trained himself for a job while in prison but struggled for a couple of years after his release to find meaningful work.
Guerrero was serving a 10-year drug-conspiracy sentence when he earned his paralegal degree in three years, spending most of his time working in a prison law library for 10 cents an hour. His studying paid off when a judge accepted his petition and freed him.
He started looking for jobs in law offices and government offices, but "everybody was closing doors," he said.
"The judge didn't sentence me to unemployment," he lamented. His library and paralegal skills weren't much use to him outside prison, he said.
His job interviews went well, and when asked about his conviction, he'd say he paid for a mistake, but employers weren't willing to take a risk on him, he said.
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"I felt like I couldn't use my knowledge," he said. "I couldn't go back to working at a Lube Pit." That's what he did before he was arrested with a pound of cocaine in his car.
Guerrero gave up, started drinking and served two more years for drunken driving.
In 2005, he had his civil rights restored and got a bail bonds license. He started helping other people make bail by putting liens on their houses. But after four months, a competitor complained, and his license was revoked.
After months of lobbying, it took a new law to get his license back — Gov. Janet Napolitano signed a bill into law in May that makes it possible for an ex-offender convicted of a nonviolent crime to have a bail bond license.
Someday, he'd like to start a program that would help ex-felons fill out papers to have their civil rights restored at a lower price than going to a lawyer, he said.
"You've got a right to be happy," he said.