Tag: NELP

Fair Chance Act advances in Congress

NOTE:  The Fair Chance Act was signed into law on December 20, 2019, as Public Law 116-92, but its provisions will not take effect for a two-year period after enactment. 

The Fair Chance to Compete for Jobs Act of 2019 passed the House on December 11 and the Senate on December 17 with bipartisan support, as part of the National Defense Authorization Act of 2020.  If signed into law, this would be the first piece of federal legislation in over a decade to provide a degree of relief from discrimination based on criminal record.

The Fair Chance Act would amend Titles 2, 5 and 28 of the U.S. Code to prohibit employers in all three branches of the federal government, and private-sector federal contractors, from asking about job applicants’ arrest and conviction record until a conditional offer of employment has been extended, an approach that has become known as “ban the box.”

“By requiring employers to hold off on asking job applicants about their conviction records until after a conditional job offer has been made, more than 700,000 Americans will gain a fairer chance at finding employment and securing a better future for themselves and their families,” said Maurice Emsellem, fair chance program director with the National Employment Law Project (NELP).

The Act’s prohibition on pre-offer inquiries extends to “criminal history information,” which is defined to include records that have been “sealed or expunged pursuant to law,” and sealed records of juvenile adjudications.  See proposed 5 U.S.C. § 9201(4)(B) and (C).  Certain types of employment would be excepted, including employment that otherwise requires inquiry into criminal history, and employment in the military, in law enforcement, and in national security.  The Director of OPM is permitted to designate additional exemptions, including positions that involve “interaction with minors, access to sensitive information, or managing financial transactions.”  See proposed § 9202(B) and (C).  The law contains provisions for enforcement and sanctions.

In additional to extending ban-the-box requirements to employment on federal contracts, including defense contracts, it would also prohibit agency procurement officials from asking persons seeking federal contracts and grants about their criminal history, until an “apparent award” has been made.  It is not clear how this law will apply where agency regulations rather than statutes govern consideration of conviction in the award of contracts and grants.

Presumably, once a conditional offer of employment has been extended, the Act would permit agencies and contractors to inquire into the applicant’s criminal history under other applicable authority.  For federal executive agencies, general authority to conduct background checks (“for national security and other purposes”) is in 5 U.S.C. §  9101.  This section authorizes inquiry about “arrests, indictments, informations, or other formal criminal charges, and any disposition arising therefrom,” as well as “records of a State or locality sealed pursuant to law if such records are accessible by State and local criminal justice agencies for the purpose of conducting background checks.”  5 U.S.C. §9101(a)(2).  Thus, post-offer, it would appear that non-conviction records could continue to be the subject of inquiry by federal hiring and contracting authorities, as well as any records that have been sealed or expunged – but only if they are available to criminal justice agencies for background checks.  (The Fair Chance Act states that it does not authorize post-offer inquiry into the broader set of records “sealed or expunged pursuant to law” or juvenile records that would be specifically barred from pre-offer inquiry under § 9201.  See proposed 5 U.S.C. §  9206.)  In some states, including New York and Texas, sealed or expunged non-conviction records are not available to law enforcement for any purpose without a court order, in others such records are available for law enforcement hiring only, and in still others there are no limits on law enforcement access. Our model law on non-conviction records notes that the states are roughly split on the question of routine law enforcement access to expunged or sealed records, and the question appears to be one on which there are valid arguments to be made for either position.

Perhaps, Congress will next take up the question of how agencies and contractors should consider any criminal history that is revealed after inquiry is permitted, including non-conviction records that have been expunged or sealed or convictions that have been pardoned.  In this regard, only a minority of states that have enacted ban-the-box laws also have enforceable hiring standards or fair employment laws that bar discrimination based on criminal record.  However, among the many benefits of ban-the-box laws is the accountability that comes with knowing that employers will now no longer be possible to hide the fact an applicant’s rejection is based on their criminal record.  If adverse decisions must be defended, there should be far fewer of them.

Strong momentum for fair-chance hiring and occupational licensing reform in 2017

The following piece by Beth Avery was originally published on the blog of the National Employment Law Project.

 

Building upon the successes of 2016, legislatures across the country are off to a strong start this year toward adopting laws that increase fairness in hiring and employment opportunities for the one-in-three U.S. adults with arrest or conviction records.

This progress should come as no surprise—in recent years broad support has emerged from coast to coast for a number of reforms that address the criminal justice system and its disproportionate impact on people of color. Along with critical efforts to increase expungement and sealing, adopt bail and sentencing reforms, and expand voting rights for people with convictions, a powerful movement is also advancing two crucial policies that improve access to employment for people with records: “fair chance hiring” or “ban the box” laws and reforms to occupational licensing requirements.Fair-Chance-and-Occupational-Licensing-Reform-2017-Map-01

 

Read more

Fair employment news and resources

The National Employment Law Project (NELP) recently published its November 2016 On the Record: Fair Employment newsletter which provides links and information on a number of interesting developments related to collateral consequences and criminal record mitigation.  The full newsletter is available below:

Read more

HHS finalizes rules on child care worker screening

In February we posted about regulations proposed by the federal Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to implement criminal history screening requirements for child care workers under recent changes to the Child Care and Development Block Grant Act of 2014.  The CCRC joined a coalition of organizations led by the National Employment Law Project (NELP) in calling upon HHS to reconsider the proposed regulations. In a formal comment submitted to HHS, the coalition argued that the regulations contained screening standards that were more exclusionary than the Act requires, and that they would have a disparate impact on women, African Americans, and Latinos.

HHS has now issued the final version of those regulations.  Although the final rules are far from perfect, they do address a number of the concerns raised by the coalition.  For example, they omit language that encouraged states to require self-disclosure of criminal history, provide greater protection from inaccurate criminal record reporting, and urge states adhere to the standards laid out in the EEOC guidance by providing individualized assessments for disqualifying offenses that are added by the states but not required by the federal law.

Unfortunately, HHS chose not to back down on one of the most troubling provisions of the proposed regulations: criminal history screening of anyone age 18 or older residing in a license-exempt home that provides child care services.  Screening of those individuals is not required by the Act itself.  As the coalition’s comments explained, the requirement will almost certainly have a disproportionately adverse impact on providers of color and their families:

Read more

“Racial profiling in hiring: A critique of new ban-the-box studies”

In June we covered two recent studies that concluded ban-the-box policies tend to decrease minority hiring because some employers use race as a proxy for criminal history.  In other words, in the absence of information about applicants’ criminal history, some employers assume that minority applicants have a record and exclude them on this assumption.  The result is that ban-the-box policies increase opportunities for whites with a criminal record but decrease them overall for minorities, and thus encourage unlawful discrimination.  Some observers, including one of the study authors, advocated for the repeal of ban-the-box policies based on those conclusions.  Last week, the National Employment Law Project (NELP) published a critique of those studies, pointing out that any adverse effect on racial minorities is ultimately the product of unlawful discrimination barred by Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, not banning the box.  In NELP’s view, the solution is “a robust reform agenda that creates jobs for people with records and dismantles racism in the hiring process, not [rolling] back the clock on ban-the-box.”  We republish the summary and introduction of NELP’s critique below.  

 

Two recent studies claim that “ban the box” policies enacted around the country detrimentally affect the employment of young men of color who do not have a conviction record.  One of the authors has boldly argued that the policy should be abandoned outright because it “does more harm than good.” It’s the wrong conclusion.  The nation cannot afford to turn back the clock on a decade of reform that has created significant job opportunities for people with records.  These studies require exacting scrutiny to ensure that they are not irresponsibly seized upon at a critical time when the nation is being challenged to confront its painful legacy of structural discrimination and criminalization of people of color.

Our review of the studies leads us to these top-line conclusions: (1) The core problem raised by the studies is not ban-the-box but entrenched racism in the hiring process, which manifests as racial profiling of African Americans as “criminals.”  (2) Ban-the-box is working, both by increasing employment opportunities for people with records and by changing employer attitudes toward hiring people with records.  (3) When closely scrutinized, the new studies do not support the conclusion that ban-the-box policies are responsible for the depressed hiring of African Americans.  (4) The studies highlight the need for a more robust policy response to both boost job opportunities for people with records and tackle race discrimination in the hiring process—not a repeal of ban-the-box laws.

Read more