The initial scrutiny from disclosing a history that includes serving time behind bars is hindering some ex-offenders from consideration for employment – adversely affecting their livelihood and the well-being of their families. A national movement is underway to change that.
The Ban the Box campaign started in 2003 by advocates for ex-inmates and working families. The “Box” refers to the box to check on job applications, which asks if the applicant has previous arrests or convictions. Banning the box removes that type of question from initial screening process. Potential employers can ask the question later in the job selection process, as they perform criminal, job, credit, or other background checks.
In November, among criminal justice reform measures to promote rehabilitation and reintegration, President Barack Obama called on Congress to ban the box in federal employment.
Nationwide, over 100 cities and 19 states have enacted Ban the Box policies so that employers will first consider a job candidate’s qualifications. St. Louis, Kansas City and Columbia, Missouri have enacted Ban the Box legislation for city government jobs. In State Senator Jamilah Nasheed sponsored a Ban the Box bill (SB 724) last session, but it did not make it out of committee. Nasheed said the bill received a lot of pushback because many Missouri legislators did not understand what I was trying to do and thought it meant that employers could not ask about if individuals have ever been convicted of a felony.
“We were not trying to hid that information; we just said basically, that should not be on the front end of the application,” Nasheed said. “Give them the opportunity to go in, get through the first interview, and you would still have the authority or the right to ask if they have ever been convicted.”
Nasheed said she and other advocates asked Governor Jay Nixon to do a Ban the Box executive order.
“Right now, they are reviewing how they can get it done,” Nasheed said. “Hopefully the governor will step up to the plate, do the right thing and take that off the applications for the state department and throughout the state of Missouri.”
The Missouri Department of Corrections states 20,000 inmates earn release back into the community annually, and at some point in time, 97 percent of the incarcerated population will be released back into Missouri communities. If offenders are released without the appropriate and necessary tools to be productive members of society, the department said they have a greater potential re-offend. The most recent recidivism rate is 44.9 percent for all releases.
“The bill didn’t pass but I’m going to file it again; I truly believe that if we’re able to give them those opportunities in terms of employment, then we would see, one – the recidivism rate go down,” and it would reduce the amount of crime in communities, Nasheed added.
Jeanette Mott Oxford, executive director of Empower Missouri in Jefferson City, said there is still a lot of misinformation about what Ban the Box means.
“You still have the right to refuse to hire anybody whose background check shows they are inappropriate,” Mott Oxford said, adding that irrational fears come out when this issue is discussed.
“Far too many people assume that anyone who has ever had any mistake – any sentence on their record can’t be a good employee, and that also doesn’t check out with reality,” Mott Oxford said.
Additional challenges creating barriers to their ex-offender success include substance abuse, mental and physical health issues, limited education, housing and support. It’s hard to get a job when you have a record.
“Many people who are ex-offenders have rehabilitated themselves with the support and help of others and sometimes are the best employees that people have, partly because they are so thankful that somebody has given them an opportunity,” Mott Oxford added.
Nasheed said banning the box addresses an important societal problem.
“Many of those individuals when they come home and they are not able to get a job, it doesn’t only impact their life from a stressful standpoint, but it impacts the lives of those children that they have,” Nasheed said. “If they cannot find a job, they are going to commit a crime in order to put food on the table. And when that happens, it breaks down the family structure and they wind up going back to jail, and they leave the children here with caretakers, like the grandmothers, the aunts, and a lot of times, they cannot take care of those children.”
The National Employment Law Project has a tool kit and information about Ban the Box in each state at www.nelp.org.
