Pros And Cons Of Banning The Box

The Tennessee Senate recently passed Senate Bill 2440 with a 25 to 7 vote. The bill, colloquially known as “ban-the box,” requires state employers to delay inquiring about criminal records while considering candidates for employment. Certain jobs do not qualify for this deferment, such as those requiring a criminal background check under federal law or jobs in education. Additionally, this bill is not an attempt to force employers to hire a convicted criminal, but rather necessitates a more holistic and thorough consideration of applicants, regardless of their criminal

This spurs questions in regards the effectiveness of the process in reacclimating and preparing criminals to become functioning members of society after their sentence, as well as the intense limitations that having a felony on record has on their success in the regular business world, as the competitive marketplace considers reforming felons generally undesirable for the workplace, pushing reforming criminals towards the world of illegal activities they know

One of the main barriers that inmates face when they are released from prison is limited cognitive skills, limited education and work experience, and substance abuse or other mental health problems. Substance abuse and other mental health problems limit employability because it limits the job readiness that is required for employment (Holzer, Raphael & Stoll, 2003). Another issue that is faced when inmates are released into society is that any skills that they did have prior to conviction has diminished greatly and they face lower pay due to their diminished or lack of skills, and the attitudes that have been developed during their time in prison deeply affects their attitude during their search for employment. Offenders also face another barrier when searching for employment. Many businesses can be held legally liable for any criminal action that their employees may cause (Holzer, Raphael & Stoll, 2003). These barriers that offenders face upon release is why solid solutions and planning must be implemented when considering the integration of ex-felons into society and preparation for reentry must begin well before the scheduled release date in order to successfully reintegrate an inmate into society and reduce the rate of recidivism.

Besides, assisting the ex-offenders in becoming competitive is equally important to make them productive to their employers if given equal opportunities. The program in Kentucky aims at making the employer understand their situation while getting back to the society. Thus, it assists them psychologically and through other means to prepare to face new challenges. Besides, some of the counties and cities that note the devastating effect of not employing the ex-convicts remove the criminal records from a job application. The reform commonly has the name ‘ban the box’ that aim at reducing discrimination of qualified ex-convicts while applying for jobs (Entin, 2015). The use of ban the box is beneficial especially in the early stages of the hiring process when employers do not know their potential employees

To fully appreciate the effects that employment schemes have on the rehabilitation of ex-offenders, we must examine the different methodologies that have been utilised to investigate this branch of

The criminal justice system focuses more on criminalization and incarceration than it does on rehabilitation. The United States of America wins the award for the highest incarceration rate in the world with over 2.3 million people in correctional facilities. America itself contains only about five percent of the world population, but accounts for twenty-five percent of the world’s prisoners (American Civil Liberties Union). With a longstanding history of mass incarceration and

The collateral consequences of mass incarceration are effects in an inmate’s community, social life, employment, wages, and family life. The separation of an inmate from their family causes many struggles to occur in the household such as the inability to become financially stable for their partners, a loss of connection with their partner and children, living with a social stigma, and divorce or separation. Even after an inmate gets out of prison, their life is still impacted from being incarcerated. Because of the stigma that comes with being incarcerated, “ex-offenders” find it hard to either find a job, maintain a job, or get a job with a decent amount of pay. These consequences contribute to inequality through establishing a type of status on an individual. By becoming an inmate or even before they are imprisoned, inmates’ deal with Lower-class family issues and stigmas that stick with them for life.

Ex-convicts are usually burdened by probation and community service, and may also be disqualified from receiving, “...Federally funded health and welfare benefits, food stamps, public housing, and federal educational assistance” (Graff 129). Despite having an alternative view on the reasons why mass incarceration is taking place, Stephanos Bibas shares the concern of ex-convicts permanently being labeled as second-class citizens. Within 3 years, 68% of ex-convicts were rearrested (Graff 129). Also, in 2000, two-thirds of parole violators that returned to prison violated by failing drug tests, failing to stay employed or missing meetings with their parole officers (Graff 130). Gilda Graff quotes from Michelle Alexander, “In this system of control, failing to cope well with one's exile status is treated like a crime” (Graff 130). The most noticeable issue in these harsh punishments put on ex-convicts is that the punishments directly affect people living in areas of high-poverty. The people whose families already suffer immensely from low-income and need government assistance are often denied it after petty crimes. This is a system that keep criminals as criminals, and forces them to commit more crimes after accepting the punishment for their previous

This poses dilemmas as for employment breaks. Another disadvantage that comes to play is the initiative filling out the form of employment (The application). On that application for employment; reads a box that states criminal history, arrests previous to applying, also asks

While the intention of “Ban the Box” is to give ex-offenders a fair chance at attaining employment; it has instead created an unreasonable burden on employers by imposing higher recruitment costs, opening the employer up to more negligent hiring lawsuits, and jeopardizing the safety of their employees. The passing of this legislation is an unnecessary inconvenience on employers and punishes them for protecting its employees and profits. This hassle is particularly seen in the recruitment process.

(2017) Although some employers implement affirmative action practices, the unconscious bias and prejudice remains. This, along with the lack of oversight in the hiring process, leads to discrimination against African Americans. However, while this kind of discrimination is illegal, Alexander discusses a different kind of discrimination, one which is legal and affects millions of black men. When a criminal is released from prison, “he has scarcely more rights, and arguably less respect, than a freed slave or a black person living ‘free’ in Mississippi at the height of Jim Crow.” (Alexander 2012) The federal law that protects people from discrimination does not apply to ex-convicted felons. When filling out a form or application, we often come across the question asking about our criminal record. Though it is illegal to discriminate based on race, color, gender, religion, age, disability or national origin, it is not illegal to discriminate against criminals. Because of this, ex-convicts can be denied employment, housing, education, and public benefits. Given that many of these ex-convicts come from low-income

The benefits of having Ban the Box laws would reduce recidivism. Employment is a vital factor for people reentering society from prison because people with criminal records that have a stable working environment are less likely to reoffend (Weissert, 2016, p. 1534). Ban the Box laws differ for when the employer can find out about the applicants criminal history, but by not having to admit to a criminal history on the intimal application it allows employers to rely on unfounded stereotypes of people with criminal records than forming their own opinion of the applicants character (Weissert, 2016, p. 1536). By the employer not being able to find out later in the

Employers could work alongside support networks e.g. social workers, family and friends. In order to stabilise the youth ex-offenders quality of life.

After a crime is committed, a felony would be sentenced to jail for a certain amount of years for committing a certain crime. Overtime, the population of those imprisoned have increased when comparing back to the beginning of imprisonment. Taking a look particularly on the American justice system, people from different ethnicities can be taken account for the incarcerated population, also known as those who are prison commits. However, those in prison can have an overall disportion amount of minorities in jail, given the African American male. With many of a certain minority group in jail, their sentencing takes a toll on not only them personally, but society as a whole. Missing men, broken relationships, and recidivism problems surfaces to

In an era in which rehabilitative inclinations are arguably gaining ground in the criminal justice system, work release programs constitute one of the proposed approaches towards inmate rehabilitation for smoother reentry into society. Work release programs allow selected prisoners to access paid work in the community during the last few months of their incarceration.