Benjamin Bland’s supervisors missed several red flags when they hired him to care for patients at Park Royal Hospital, a last stop for many of Southwest Florida’s seriously mentally ill citizens. Bland was accused of sexually abusing several female…
Posts by Category: Criminal History Check
“Ban the Box”: Good for People with Disabilities
President Obama took an historic step by directing the Office of Personnel Management to take action to ban the box in federal employment. As a result, OPM will modify its rules to delay inquiries into criminal history until later in the hiring process. Encouraging…
Amid U.S. Inmate Release, Employers Wary of Lawsuits From Job Applicant Criminal Record Legislation
As the nation’s leaders come together on criminal justice reforms that they hope will reduce the U.S. inmate population and the harshness of criminal penalties, advocates for the formerly incarcerated want to discourage public and private employers from using criminal…
California Laws on Employer Use of Arrest and Conviction Records
If you are among the estimated one in four Americans with a criminal record, you might face an uphill battle in your job search. Surveys show that a majority of employers (92%) perform criminal background checks when hiring for at least some positions. If a…
The Fair Chance Act and Stop Credit Discrimination in Employment Act – New Interpretations from the NYCCHR
Earlier this year, the New York City Council passed two laws which place limitations on an employer’s ability to use background checks including credit checks in employment decisions: the Fair Chance Act (FCA) and the Stop Credit Discrimination in Employment Act…
The Fair Chance – Ban the Box Toolkit
In the early 2000s, grassroots organizers in San Francisco and Boston began urging local governments to remove questions about convictions from job applications so that people can be judged first on their qualifications. Just over a decade later, over 100…
State Appellate Court Considers Employer’s Duty to Conduct Criminal Background Checks
In the last few years, there has been a significant spike in the number of lawsuits challenging employer use of criminal background checks, including class action lawsuits brought under the federal FCRA. There also has been a sharp increase in the number of state and…
A Bipartisan “Ban the Box” Bill is Introduced in Congress
Members of Congress led by U.S. Sens. Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Ron Johnson (R-WI) in the Senate and Reps. Elijah E. Cummings (D-MD) and Darrell Issa (R-CA), in the House of Representatives, introduced the Fair Chance Act, bipartisan, bicameral legislation that would…
Fort Myers FL to Ban the Box on City Job Applications
The City of Fort Myers, Florida plans to “Ban the Box” and remove a question on the city’s employment application that asks job seekers applying for city government jobs if they have ever been convicted of a crime. The Myers Human Resources…
City of Wichita Joins Ban the Box Movement
The city of Wichita, Kansas has joined the Ban the Box movement by implementing a new program called the Fair Chance Initiative where public sector job applications will no longer ask candidates to check a box if they have a felony conviction. The Ban the Box program…