And you thought calling young criminals "justice-involved youth" was absurd!

How about calling an adult ex-con an "individual who was incarcerated"?

Yes, the same Obama Justice Department that decided it was meany-meany to use the term "juvenile delinquent" has decided that it hurts the feelings of felons to call them felons. Thus, U.S. Assistant Attorney General Karol Mason, head of the Office of Justice Programs (whatever that is), writes in the Washington Post that she's ordered a department-wide language purge so as to make it easier for ex-cons–oops, I mean "individuals who were incarcerated"–to "re-enter" society:

The labels we affix to those who have served time can drain their sense of self-worth and perpetuate a cycle of crime, the very thing reentry programs are designed to prevent.

Because shoring up the "self-worth" of career criminals is highly important.

Mason continues:

This new policy statement replaces unnecessarily disparaging labels with terms like “person who committed a crime” and “individual who was incarcerated,” decoupling past actions from the person being described and anticipating the contributions we expect them to make when they return.  We will be using the new terminology in speeches, solicitations, website content, and social media posts, and I am hopeful that other agencies and organizations will consider doing the same.

Convicted rapists and murderers have so much to contribute!

We, all of us, can help them by dispensing with useless and demeaning labels that freeze people in a single moment of time.

As the Daily Caller points out:

This is one of many steps the Obama administration is using to help recently released offenders. President Barack Obama announced in 2015 federal agencies would no longer ask if people were felons in the early job application steps.

Fortunately, some of the commenters to Mason's WaPo op-ed offered some even better euphemisms for convicted muggers, burglars, and child-molesters. How about "alumni of Pen State," suggested one commenter. "Graduates of the bars," suggested another.