Obama Will Order Federal Government to 'Ban The Box'

[eridani]

Excellent!

http://readersupportednews.org/news-section2/318-66/33277-obama-will-order-federal-government-to-ban-the-box

In order to remove barriers to employment for the formerly incarcerated, President Obama will order federal employers to “ban the box” in the early stages of the application and hiring process. Monday’s announcement is the result of mounting pressure from legal groups and former inmates.

The decision, which will be announced during the president’s trip to Newark, New Jersey, will require the federal government’s Human Resources department to “delay inquiries into criminal history until later in the hiring process.” Although it does not ban the criminal background question altogether, job applicants are more likely to receive an offer if the question is posed later in the application process.

In July, the president called on employers to eliminate the criminal history question from job applications, but stopped short of executive action. Several weeks later, ban the box advocates rallied in front of the White House to pressure Obama to take executive action. People who lived through the experience of leaving prison and struggling to find work shared how demoralizing the barrier to employment can be.

“Given the racial disparities of the American criminal justice system, criminal record based discrimination in the employment context serves as a surrogate for race-based discrimination,” Glenn Martin, a formerly incarcerated activist and President of Just Leadership USA, told ThinkProgress. “President Obama’s steps to ban-the-box means that more qualified jobseekers will have the chance to find jobs, support their families, and pay taxes.”


On a related note--

Obama to Announce Plans to Help the Formerly Incarcerated

http://readersupportednews.org/news-section2/318-66/33269-obama-to-announce-plans-to-help-the-formerly-incarcerated

he White House said the steps, to be unveiled by Obama at an appearance in Newark, New Jersey, would include up to $8 million in federal education grants over three years for former inmates as well as new guidance on the use of arrest records in determining eligibility for public and federally assisted housing.

Obama is also directing the Office of Personnel Management to take steps where possible to modify its rules in order to delay inquiries into criminal backgrounds until later in the hiring process.

"While most agencies already have taken this step, this action will better ensure that applicants from all segments of society, including those with prior criminal histories, receive a fair opportunity to compete for federal employment," the White House said in a statement.

It added that Obama was encouraged that Congress was considering a measure to "ban the box" for criminal histories for hiring by federal agencies and contractors, following the lead of some cities, states and private companies.

Noting that more than 600,000 people were released every year from state and federal prisons, the White House said: "Advancing policies and programs that enable these men and women to put their lives back on track and earn their second chance promotes not only justice and fairness, but also public safety."

[Scuba]

1. Yet they say he never does anything to help Congressmen!

[Angry Dragon]

6. +48,000

[Donald Ian Rankin]

2. This sounds reasonable, at least superficially.

There are situations where even a spent criminal conviction should bar someone from holding a job - if they'd served their time and claimed to have reformed, I might conceivably employ a sex offender to manage my finances and a fraudster to look after my children, but I certainly wouldn't do the reverse.

But the simple fact of a conviction should not be used as a filter to cut down the number of applications looked at.

[eridani]

3. That is the point of Ban the Box

Can't be used for screening. If a candidate makes it through the screening, then a prison record can be considered.

[PoliticalMalcontent]

4. This is an EXCELLENT use of executive orders.

There was a segment on The Daily Show last month on 'ban the box'. Glad it seems to have brought real attention to the issue.

[lame54]

5. that deserves a rec

[riderinthestorm]

7. Excellent!! Big K&R! nt

[Laura PourMeADrink]

8. This is HUGE for anyone who knows someone who may have

had past problems with drug offenses ! Wonder how much later they are talking about to ask the question? Like a minute later?

[jtuck004]

9. Huh. One giveth, another taketh away...

Here's a thought. End the war on people, keep 'em out of prison in the first place. That would do more for people of color than to ignore the tragedy of subjecting them to an immoral imprisonment.


The Clinton dynasty’s horrific legacy: How “tough-on-crime” politics built the world’s largest prison system
Over the past two decades, the Clintons' version of the "War on Drugs" has inflicted needless suffering on millions
here

...


The explosion of the prison system under Bill Clinton’s version of the “War on Drugs” is impossible to dispute. The total prison population rose by 673,000 people under Clinton’s tenure — or by 235,000 more than it did under President Ronald Reagan, according to a study by the Justice Policy Institute. “Under President Bill Clinton, the number of prisoners under federal jurisdiction doubled, and grew more than it did under the previous 12-years of Republican rule,combined,” states the JPI report (italics theirs). The federal incarceration rate in 1999, the last year of the Democrat’s term, was 42 per 100,000 — more than double the federal incarceration rate at the end of President Reagan’s term (17 per 100,000), and 61 percent higher than at the end of President George Bush’s term (25 per 100,000), according to JPI.

Just before the New Hampshire primary, Bill Clinton famously flew back to Arkansas to personally oversee the execution of a mentally impaired African-American inmate named Ricky Ray Rector. The “New Democrat” spoke on the campaign trail of being tougher on criminals than Republicans; and the symbolism of the Rector execution was followed by a series of Clinton “tough on crime” measures, including: a $30 billion crime bill that created dozens of new federal capital crimes; new life-sentence rules for some three-time offenders; mandatory minimums for crack and crack cocaine possession; billions of dollars in funding for prisons; extra funding for states that severely punished convicts; limited judges’ discretion in determining criminal sentences; and so on. There is very strong evidence that these policies had a small impact on actual crime rates, totally out of proportion to their severity.

There is also very strong evidence that these policies contributed to the immiseration of vast numbers of black (and also white) Americans at the bottom of the economic ladder, according to the well-known conclusions of journalists, academics and other criminal justice experts. Federal funding for public housing fell by $17 billion (a 61 percent reduction) under Bill Clinton’s tenure; federal funding for corrections rose by $19 billion (an increase of 171 percent), according to Michelle Alexander’s seminal work, “The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness.” The federal government’s new priorities redirected nearly $1 billion in state spending for higher education to prison construction. Clinton put a permanent eligibility ban for welfare or food stamps on anyone convicted of a felony drug offense (including marijuana possession). He prohibited drug felons from public housing. Any liberal arts grad with an HBO account can tell you the consequences for poor, black American cities like Baltimore. As Alexander writes, “More than any other president, [Clinton] created the current racial undercaste.”