. >> reporter: sharon dietrich is now ronald lewis' lawyer. she didn't represent him in the original criminal cases. she's also the litigation director at community legal services of philadelphia. she's been there for nearly thirty years. >> we serve the low-income community of philadelphia, basically unemployed and low- wage workers in philadelphia. and it's the single most common reason people come to us for help is because they have a criminal record that has been keeping them from getting a job. >> reporter: last year, the "wall street journal," using data from the university of south carolina, reported that americans with a criminal conviction by age 23 have higher unemployment rates, make less money, and are twice as likely to end up in poverty as their peers. >> the re(c+uv s that with the rise of technology and really with the proliferation of background checks in this nation in really every walk of life from employment to housing a criminal record now carries often lifelong barriers to basic building blocks of economic security. >> re