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Would you hire a criminal?
Sixty-five million Americans—or one in four adults—have a criminal record. But employers—including major companies like Bank of America, Omni Hotel, and Domino’s Pizza—routinely post job ads on Craigslist that explicitly exclude such applicants, according to a new report conducted by the National Employment Law Center (NELP), a labor-affiliated advocacy group.
The practice appears in some cases to be against the law, and at a time of record long-term joblessness, advocates for the poor say it places yet another obstacle in front of people who are working to get their life back on track.
Perhaps most important, effectively making more than one quarter of the American workforce unemployable may be an unsustainable policy for the economy as whole.
Because discriminating against those with criminal records disproportionately hurts African Americans, the practice may violate the Civil Rights Act, which prohibits race-based hiring discrimination. Indeed, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has said that although considering an applicant’s criminal record may be acceptable on a case-by-case basis, an “absolute bar to employment” for such people is illegal.
Last year, plaintiffs brought at least five major civil rights lawsuits against large employers on the issue, but the National Employment Law Project wants the EEOC to enforce the law more vigorously.
There’s not much chance of getting a job with most businesses, not only the national corporations, if you’ve got a record. The military still enlists felons on a case-by-case basis. Looks like without a lot of money to begin with and a good or hungry lawyer, or just some good luck, you’re screwed.
#19 OvenMaster: that’s an oversimplified response that doesn’t actually address any of the stated problems.
“Avoid conviction” ? That ship has already sailed. What do we do *now*? What can we do now?
If there is a felon who made a mistake, served his time, saw the error of his ways and wants to be a productive member of society, what purpose does putting a scarlet letter on him serve? Not every felon is this way, obviously. But setting up an unjust system, only reinforces contempt for the system.
#15 Alphie, I agree with you for once! Why if George Bush can be hired as president with an alcohol arrest, then your conclusion has solid basis.
However, you are fooling yourself if u think America, Inc is more interested in clean records than in cheaper labor. Thanks to you, your next generation of Alphie sheeples will be competing with child labor to make that iPad 9.
>Because discriminating against those with criminal records disproportionately hurts African Americans,
This is a racist statement, implying that black people are criminals.
Dallas said
“#15 Alphie, I agree with you for once! Why if George Bush can be hired as president with an alcohol arrest, then your conclusion has solid basis.”
Goerge Bush was able to avoid bearing the full brunt of society’s punishment because he, being a trust fund baby, had huge amounts of money to hire the very best lawyers who spared no effort or expense to work and game the system so this young man who made a simple mistake wouldn’t be scared for the rest of his life.
A 19 year old poor kid doesn’t get that kind of effort and consideration from the legal system and his overworked public defender. He’s persuaded to take a plea bargain to avoid several more years in jail, he gets processed by the system and comes out unemployable.
Meanwhile, a company that has a job available will get multiple applications from persons with no record. They do not have any reason to take a chance on a person with a record.
The article in the post really only refers to poor people. Rich kids who get in trouble will likely not suffer the same experience.
Best legal system money can buy. It’s good to be King! Sucks to be poor!
#24 I agree 100% .
By driving drunk, Bush endangered many lives, including countess unborn babies that may have been on the road and American soldiers returning home. Yet this arrest record was set aside to be in charge of the Justice department.
#22 Broken record…like the OP, America hasn’t been top of any living standard list for a long time…we don’t even show up in any top 30 in most areas.
BECAUSE progressives drove wealth creators/job makers overseas with their hate the rich manifesto.
Robotics and old fashioned automation means labor isn’t driving reason to relocate in China.
Business are being driven out by folks like you, Dallas, who never saw a corporation that shouldn’t be divested of its wealth, through tax policy, unions, and lawsuit.
Its amazing how little items – that no long ago would be buried in dusty paper and hid in the past of what were hard working ordinary people now sit there forever to haunt you
I wonder on Craigslist simple jobs that are being offered get such a workup
“Would you hire a felon?” Why not? We elect enough of them…
The EEOC is the place where you have to file your charges and their job, paid for by the people with the jobs, is to, uh, vet the complaints.
Like putting a thief in charge of the warehouse keys, wouldn’t you say? In this case, its your warehouse.
I wonder
a) How many applications are made per year?
b) How many of those actually get to a court per year?
c) How many of those actually get adjudicated?
d) How many of those are found for the plaintif?
e) How much the settlements are?
The implementation of the EEOC may just be a piece of bullshit perpetrated on the public to protect the interest of the employers, regardless of its original intent.
Between me and thee, there are many ways to poison a well.
Lobbyists know them all.
“Government jobs, on the other hand…” Require a background check be passed prior to employment. Elected officials on the other hand…
In # 26, Taxed Enough Already Dude said: BECAUSE progressives drove wealth creators/job makers overseas with their hate the rich manifesto.
STOP USING THE WORD PROGRESSIVE SINCE IT OBVIOUSLY DOES NOT MEAN WHAT YOU THINK IT DOES!
Read the definition of the word. Its got nothing to say about politics or the politics of the individuals who are progressive.
I think you mean the corporatists, those individuals who care about and only about the corporation for which they work, to the exclusion of all else.
They are the ones who left and took their jobs with them.
pro·gres·sive
[pruh-gres-iv]
–adjective
1.
favoring or advocating progress, change, improvement, or reform, as opposed to wishing to maintain things as they are, especially in political matters: a progressive mayor.
2.
making progress toward better conditions; employing or advocating more enlightened or liberal ideas, new or experimental methods, etc.: a progressive community.
3.
characterized by such progress, or by continuous improvement.
4.
( initial capital letter ) of or pertaining to any of the Progressive parties in politics.
5.
going forward or onward; passing successively from one member of a series to the next; proceeding step by step.
6.
noting or pertaining to a form of taxation in which the rate increases with certain increases in taxable income.
7.
of or pertaining to progressive education: progressive schools.
8.
Grammar . noting a verb aspect or other verb category that indicates action or state going on at a temporal point of reference.
9.
Medicine/Medical . continuously increasing in extent or severity, as a disease.
–noun
10.
a person who is progressive or who favors progress or reform, especially in political matters.
11.
( initial capital letter ) a member of a Progressive party.
12.
Grammar .
a.
the progressive aspect.
b.
a verb form or construction in the progressive, as are thinking in They are thinking about it.
I’m more troubled by the company hiring posts, that are for minority candidates only. They usually use various buzzwords like diversity positions, or equal opportunity hires.
The amount of discrimination against people who have criminal records is unreal. The people in here that talk down on people have made mistakes have a one point in their life done something that was illegal the only difference is they were not caught. So you say that people with criminal records get what they deserve. Well when your house gets burglarized by a person who is starving, cant feed his family, or keep shelter over their head because of previous mistakes then I say you are getting what you deserve. I myself have a record that is 10 years old with no new convictions and am haunted by it every day, but that does not excuse the way society prevents me from being able to properly provide for myself or my family. You want to know why their are so many repeat offenders and career criminals go talk to anyone with a criminal record and ask them what they are faced with on a daily basis. This country was founded by people that were debtors, religiously prosecuted, and criminals in their respected countries. It was at one point a place for people to have second chances at a good life, too bad that is a thing of the past.
#24, Steve,
Good post. One thing you didn’t mention is the ability of rich people to have their record expunged. Those who can’t afford lawyers and don’t have the connections rarely get that chance.
>The amount of discrimination against people who have criminal records is unreal.
No it’s real, and I think it’s OK. People have a choice in who to hire. If you were the one doing the hiring, you would probably go in the direction of someone who has not committed a crime. Or are you telling me if you were looking for someone to clean your house, you would treat equally two candidates one who is in community college and someone who served sixth months for breaking and entering?
33 Yes perhaps it is unfair to discriminate against those with a criminal record, but then nobody said life was fair. If its my company its my choice who to hire or not. Do I hire a convicted pedo for my day care? Do I hire a convicted embezzler for my bank? Do I hire a convicted drug dealer for my pharmacy? Do I hire a convicted drunk driver for my trucking company? Do I hire a convicted thief for my warehouse? If I do what are the liabilities for my company? If I hire one what message does that send to my customers? The purpose of my company is to make money for me and mine. While its great to have a social conscience, it stops be great when it impairs my ability to do business.
While at one level legalizing wed might solve some problems at another it doesn’t.
No company run by somebody with a brain is going to want a pot head working for them. In too many jobs you need to have the little gray cells actually working up to full speed not barely firing. The same would apply to alcohol on the work site in many cases. They aren’t prudes but an accident can cost them a $1,000,000 or even more.
I agree the legal system is a growing mess. We made it that way. I agree many companies won’t touch people with any sort of criminal record, test positive for a host of drugs and legalizing them won’t change that, or even people who have had financial problems. The last bothers me most.
We might as well be honest here and note that the fed gov and its contractors are a major leading force in this discrimination. Why they should care if some one had money problems at some point escapes me as long as the person sorted it out especially if the person isn’t handling money anyway.
I do have the rather unusual view that a lot of things that are against the law ought not be. It isn’t that I approve of what people are doing so much as I feel that people have the right to live like swine if the wish to.
Of course it’s going to be a plus if the next war in Iran,Libya,Saudi,Patagonia goes a bit out of hand.
The army wouldn’t want to conscript anyone who had smoked a joint or downloaded an MP3.
It’s going to skew the profile of the cannon fodder a little if they are all middle class white guys in their 40s!
Progressive statist tyranny makes new laws ad nauseam every year, thousands of them…
We all are felons, somehow.
We live to serve the Government, when constitutionally it should be the reverse.
The best illustration of our servitude, a property owner I know was cited by the city for making improvements without a permit…he patched his roof.
Another isn’t allowed to rent his property to a car rental, when his neighbors are commercial businesses, because that is another zone…so he suffers financially, required to pay taxes on property he can’t lease to others.
Then the infamous Supreme court eniment domain that allows cities to take property on for almost any reason…
AND we see what progressive hell the DemoRepublican party has led us into.
Go Tea Party to be free, death to statistism, death to the DemoRepublican slavery that’s bankrupting our country so they can be bribed for permits.
What about when cities require criminal background checks to anyone who is renting?