Starting June 1, criminal offenders in Ohio will no longer have to check a box requiring them to reveal past convictions on state civil service job applications. Questions regarding prior convictions will be removed from thousands of applications for state government positions, which include highway workers, prison guards, social workers and lawyers. By voluntarily removing the box from employment applications, Ohio is the 17th state to join the “ban the box” movement. But it has not yet enacted a proposal to extend the ban to all public entities. “This is a pretty significant victory for us, in that Ohio has implemented a fair hiring policy,” said Stephen JohnsonGrove, the Cincinnati-based deputy director of the Ohio Justice and Policy Center.

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