As other commenters have said, it isn't just people with criminal records who get marginalised. Members of my family experienced social exclusion due to PTSD following military service. Many vets come back with similar issues as ex-prisoners. What happened to those who served in Vietnam and Korea is shameful. But there are also people who are simply atypical, low IQ, old, queer, disabled, or the wrong skin colour. We have a very, very long way to go to become the society we imagine ourselves to be, one where everyone doesn't just "get by" but prospers, and feels wanted and fulfilled in life.
I know it will be unpopular to say here, but amongst all nations the USA seems particularly brutal with regard to its social exclusion, and I think it will only ever be solved from the political level, not bottom-up. At 68 you're still a spring chicken for politics, so I'd go into that if I were you, as a single-issue candidate on "jobs for the marginalised". Judging by the size of the US "excluded population" you'd win a landslide. :)