WILTON — Providing a fair chance for all citizens seems a basic tenet of our culture. If you’ve made a mistake or a poor choice or have committed a crime, most of us are ready to help you pick yourself up and start all over again.

However, for those who have been released from incarceration and are attempting to re-enter society, getting a fair chance while seeking employment, an often-difficult endeavor, has been made more so by the box on job applications that asks for the applicant’s conviction history.

“Felons need not apply” has come to be the contemporary phrase for discriminatory practices similar to those with which previous generations of immigrants, people of color and adherents of certain religious creeds have had to contend.

Led by President Obama and his directives on federal hiring practices, as well as by laws passed in 24 states, there is a counter-movement proposing what are known as “ban the box” or “fair chance” initiatives.

Obama has forbidden federal agencies from asking job applicants about their criminal histories until after they have had a chance to prove their qualifications. In addition to the passage of “fair chance” legislation at the state and county levels, major employers such as Wal-Mart and Target have dropped the “box” from job applications.

According to a recent New York Times editorial: “These … policy changes can be traced to the Federal Interagency Reentry Council, a group of more than 20 federal agencies led by the attorney general. … The council and its member agencies have been especially focused in removing unfair barriers to employment that have become pervasive since employers turned to computer-based arrest and conviction records for job-screening purposes.

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“These records are notoriously inaccurate and frequently contain mistakes, including records of arrests that either were dismissed or never led to conviction,” the editorial stated.

The federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission took an important step in 2012 when it updated a ruling on the use of criminal history in making hiring decisions.

The commission recommended against automatically denying jobs to applicants based on their arrest and conviction records; instead, the agency said, companies should take into account the seriousness of the offense, when it had occurred and whether it was relevant to the job. Companies have faced rigorous enforcement actions for failing to observe the EEOC’s guidance.

In Maine, recidivism during the first year after release is 23 percent, a rate that grows as the number of years of freedom increases. While many factors play into reoffending, the National Employment Law Project concludes that employment has been found to be a significant factor in reducing recidivism. The organization has also found that a 1 percent drop in the unemployment rate causes a 1 percent to 2 percent decline in some criminal offenses.

The Maine Prisoner Advocacy Coalition, with the support of Maine Equal Justice Partners, the Maine Council of Churches, the Children’s Alliance of Maine, the NAACP, the Maine Democratic Party and other groups, has developed “fair chance” legislation that will be introduced to the next Legislature.

The intent of the legislation is clear: “An employer or hiring authority shall not inquire into or consider an applicant’s conviction history until after the applicant has received a conditional offer of employment;

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“A Licensing authority shall not inquire into or consider the conviction history of an applicant for licensing until after an applicant is found to be otherwise qualified for the license;

“Job applications and licensing applications shall not inquire into an applicant’s conviction history.”

By ensuring that no person shall be disqualified from employment solely or in part because of a prior conviction, this extends a “fair chance” to those re-entering the work world.

The legislation and its supporters recognize, at the same time, that there are legitimate reasons to prohibit certain offenders from specific jobs: e.g., barring registered sex offenders from working in children’s day care programs.

The proposed legislation is clear on this issue as well: “If a statute explicitly requires that certain convictions are bars to employment or licensing, then those convictions shall be considered as well.”

As the campaign season winds down, and as we gather information regarding our voting decisions, it is worth asking candidates where they stand on “fair chance” legislation. It’s an important measure of how willing we are to provide support to the nearly 1,200 persons released each year from the Maine prison system.


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