By Tina Rosenberg

This year, the United States will release nearly three-quarters of a million people from prison, a record high. Nationally, 2.3 million people are in prison in the United States, and 95 percent of them will, at some point, get out and go home.

She’d gone to Gillette Stadium with three friends, four among hundreds looking for jobs at the Patriots’ home turf. When Freeman’s turn came, the woman at the employment table was more and more encouraging as she went through Freeman’s application.

“It’s ‘Yes, yes, yes, then, oh… wait,’ ” Freeman recalled when the reviewer hit the page where she’d noted her drug conviction. “ ‘What does this say? You have a felony?’ ”