Job Prospects for Individuals with Criminal RecordsJob Prospects for Individuals with Criminal Records Despite public perception, having a criminal conviction does not automatically disqualify someone from holding the office of President of the United States. However, the presence of a criminal record can pose significant challenges for individuals seeking employment in general. Legal Barriers In the absence of specific legal prohibitions, many employers are hesitant to hire individuals with criminal records, regardless of the nature or severity of the offense. Even minor infractions, such as an arrest with dropped charges, can hinder job prospects. Background Checks Background checks have become commonplace in the hiring process, revealing even expunged criminal records. This can lead to discrimination against individuals with past convictions. While federal guidelines require employers to consider the relevance of a criminal record to the position, many employers opt for a blanket policy of rejecting candidates with any criminal history. Laws Aiming to Protect Job Applicants Despite laws and regulations aimed at providing fairness to job applicants with criminal records, these protections are often insufficient. Laws vary in their limitations, and many states and cities lack any formal protections. Even in states with strong laws, employers may find loopholes or simply refuse to hire individuals with criminal histories. Case Study A client with expunged convictions faced rejection from a bank job based on a misinterpretation of a federal regulation. Despite the client’s qualifications and rehabilitation efforts, the bank initially denied the job offer. Through the intervention of an attorney and the eventual application of state law, the client was eventually hired. Recommendations for Individuals with Criminal Records * Obtain a copy of your criminal record and correct any errors. * Familiarize yourself with laws and regulations in your state that may offer protection during the job application process. * Consider seeking legal assistance if you encounter discrimination or barriers related to your criminal history.
New York (CNN) — Even before a jury found Donald Trump guilty of 34 crimes for falsifying company records in New York’s so-called “hush money” trial, many Americans were surprised to learn that having a criminal conviction would not automatically disqualify someone from presidency. of the United States, should they be elected.
But the US Constitution does not prohibit this.
In fact, for many, if not most jobs, there are no legal prohibitions against hiring people with criminal records. Yet many employers are reluctant to do this.
If Trump were looking for the kinds of jobs that tens of millions of other Americans with criminal records apply for, he would likely encounter the same obstacles they do in their job search.
Criminal records can include anything from serious crimes, such as a murder conviction, to something much less serious, such as an arrest in a case where the charges were dropped or the person was acquitted.
Whatever the situation, “People simply don’t seem to want to deal with a criminal record of any kind, even if the charges are dropped,” says Margaret Love, executive director of the Collateral Consequences Resource Center, which monitors federal and state laws that arrange for the restoration of the rights of those arrested or convicted of crimes.
Background checks can undermine your career opportunities
With the exception of certain industries, such as banking or healthcare, or certain types of public sector jobs, employers are not legally required to conduct background checks on job applicants.
Yet most do anyway. And if a criminal record of any kind surfaces, it can destroy a person’s chances, no matter how well qualified he or she is for a position, whether because an employer has high risk aversion or a bias against people with a criminal record. Love said. “There is a patchwork of formal laws and regulations that can exclude people from certain forms of work. But usually the problem has become less formal and manifests itself through widespread background checks.”
This is despite a labyrinth of laws and regulatory guidelines at the federal, state, and local levels aimed at giving people with criminal records a fairer shot as job applicants.
For example, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission requires that employers who consider criminal records in their hiring decisions “evaluate whether the record is relevant to the job” by looking at the type and severity of the offense or crime; how long ago it was committed or when the sentence was served.
There are also at least 37 states and more than 150 cities and counties that have “taken steps to eliminate barriers to employment for qualified workers with criminal records. Of those jurisdictions, 15 states, the District of Columbia and 21 cities and counties are expanding their policies for fair employment opportunities in private employment,” according to the National Employment Law Project.
But there are no general provisions or prohibitions across the board. “Laws vary in what they require of employers. … And in many places, nothing at all is needed,” said Beth Avery, senior staff attorney at NELP. “Even the strongest laws are designed to get someone’s foot in the door – and that’s not enough.”
For example, Avery said states with the strictest laws prohibit employers from conducting background checks until they have offered a candidate a job. And even then, employers can still withdraw the offer.
That’s what happened to a client of Sabina Crocette, a senior staff attorney in the Racial Economic Justice Program at the Legal Aid at Work group in San Francisco. Her client had convictions starting in 2007 when he was young, but nothing since. His convictions were expunged in 2017 after he completed a business degree at a community college and engaged in other rehabilitation activities, Crocette said. He spent the past two years applying for a job at a bank after becoming licensed as a mortgage loan broker and working in the financial services industry for a year. The bank offered him a job, pending a background check.
“When it came back stating dismissed convictions, he was denied the job,” Crocette said. “The employer cited his conviction history. When he appealed the employer’s decision and provided them with evidence of his criminal record being cleared, the employer still denied him the job.”
In explaining the rejection, the bank cited a Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation regulation known as Section 19, which Crocette said the firm misinterpreted. After being rejected twice, the client persisted. “With the help of California’s Fair Chance Act, and the actual language and guidance in Section 19, the client was hired and continues to work successfully for that employer,” she said.
While the end result was good for the customer, it is not typical and the entire experience took about eight months to resolve. “It was a lot,” Crocette noted.
Even with relatively strict laws, ‘huge’ problems remain
Alongside California, New York is one of the states with some of the strongest laws aimed at helping people with criminal records find jobs. Yet “there are still huge, huge problems,” says Jason Hoge, supervising attorney for the Legal Assistance of Western NY (LawNY) Reentry Project.
Employers — especially smaller ones — may wrongly assume they can’t hire one of his clients because of a prior conviction, Hoge said. Or the paperwork and time required to get approved for someone with a criminal record may be such that an employer simply decides to look at candidates without a criminal record.
“Sometimes people think they have to turn away my clients because of a criminal conviction. Sometimes there’s outright discrimination (as in) ‘I’m never going to hire someone with a criminal record.’ (Or sometimes) they use criminal records as a cover for racial discrimination,” Hoge said, referring to the inequities in American society that result in blacks being arrested and imprisoned at higher rates than whites with similar charges and criminal records.
Hoge recommends that anyone who has ever had even a minor in trouble with the law get their own copy of their record and take steps to correct any errors before an employer expunges it. Each state will have a registrar similar to New York’s Division of Criminal Justice Services.
Check to see what laws and regulations your state or city has that may provide you with protection during the application process. For example, New York’s Clean Slate Act comes into effect in November. That law stipulates that eligible conviction records are automatically “sealed,” meaning they should no longer appear on employers’ background checks. And just this month, Governor Wes Moore of Maryland pardoned 175,000 convictions for cannabis possession crimes.
The CNN Wire
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