Efforts are underway to help former prisoners find jobs. The focus is to “ban the box” on job applications that would disclose any criminal convictions.
Tamisha Walker recalls her first encounter with the box.
“Right then and there, it was like the air went out of my tires,” Walker told reporter Lydia DePillis, who was writing for the Washington Post’s online feature Storyline.
Walker said she got an interview but didn’t get that job; however, she did get another job as a community organizer.
Since then, Walker has helped pass a law in the city of Richmond that bans city government and its contractors from asking about criminal history on initial job applications.
Soon after, California passed a law requiring state agencies to delay asking the question until after determining the applicant meets the basic requirements of a job.
“Meanwhile, the ‘ban the box’ movement was sweeping the country,” DePillis reported. “Since Hawaii became the first jurisdiction to protect the employment prospects of people with criminal records in 1998, 12 more states and 97 cities and counties have passed some version of ‘fair chance’ hiring.”
In September Walker attended a White House meeting to urge the federal government to take similar action. A number of community-based organizations have joined the effort, asking President Obama to “ban the box” for federal agencies and their contractors.
“Now is the time for President Obama to act boldly to open up employment opportunities for the large numbers of Americans who have been unfairly locked out of the job market because of a criminal record,” says a report drafted by the National Employment Law Project.
DePillis is described as a reporter focusing on labor, business and housing. She worked previously at The New Republic and the Washington City Paper.
