{"id":106760,"date":"2016-02-11T04:50:58","date_gmt":"2016-02-11T11:50:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/lawmakers-mull-helping-people-overcome-past-mistakes-with-the-law-when-seeking-employment\/"},"modified":"2016-02-11T04:50:58","modified_gmt":"2016-02-11T11:50:58","slug":"lawmakers-mull-helping-people-overcome-past-mistakes-with-the-law-when-seeking-employment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/lawmakers-mull-helping-people-overcome-past-mistakes-with-the-law-when-seeking-employment\/","title":{"rendered":"Lawmakers mull helping people overcome past mistakes with the law when seeking employment"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Colorado
Colorado lawmakers may try to prohibit many private sector employers from asking job applicants about their criminal background because the information often unfairly excludes those who have paid for the mistakes a fair shot at gaining employment.<\/span>Cliff Vancura photo illustration<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

DENVER \u2013 Colorado Springs resident Heidi Sharp has beaten her addiction to methamphetamine, but she still can\u2019t seem to escape her criminal past.<\/p>\n

Despite trading her meth habit to pursue a degree in addiction counseling, Sharp has struggled to find employment.<\/p>\n

In the eyes of the recovery world, Sharp appears to be doing everything right. She has come to believe that a power greater than herself could restore her to sanity; she\u2019s pursued a degree, and she\u2019s tried to find employment where she can \u2013 usually in the field of sales.<\/p>\n

But a 2011 felony conviction for conspiracy to commit theft \u2013 a charge related to her dark seven-year battle with addiction \u2013 has held her back from experiencing more promising employment. The situation intensified on New Year\u2019s Eve when the Colorado Springs sales firm she worked for closed its doors.<\/p>\n

\u201cSince then, when I apply for places, they just don\u2019t accept anyone who is a felon,\u201d Sharp said. \u201cI could always work at McDonald\u2019s, but I have a mortgage to pay.\u201d<\/p>\n

State lawmakers may try to address the issue this year with legislation that would prohibit many private sector employers from asking about a person\u2019s criminal background on an application, without first offering them an interview.<\/p>\n

Colorado law already prohibits asking the question on applications for many state jobs.<\/p>\n

Supporters of the effort to extend the law to the private sector acknowledge that criminal background checks are required for some jobs, so exemptions would exist.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy goal is to help people become productive members of society,\u201d said Rep. Beth McCann, D-Denver, who intends to sponsor the bill this year. \u201cIf they have been convicted, they\u2019ve done their time, what we want to do is at least allow them to have the first steps so their r\u00e9sum\u00e9 doesn\u2019t automatically go into the recycle bin.\u201d<\/p>\n

Colorado isn\u2019t the only state to pursue such legislation. Seven other states have enacted similar bills.<\/p>\n

Some proponents refer to the movement as \u201cBan the Box,\u201d referring to the criminal background box on job applications. But McCann says it\u2019s more about \u201cresponsible re-entry.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pushing for the legislation is the Colorado Center on Law and Policy. Executive Director Claire Levy, a former state lawmaker, said as much as 25 percent of the population grapples with \u201cpoor choices\u201d from a past life that come back to haunt in the form of a conviction.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe climate is really ripe for this because there is so much focus on reducing over-incarceration, recognizing that it is a waste of money,\u201d Levy said. \u201cThe research is very clear that having a job is one of the strongest predictors of whether you are going to succeed or fail when you leave prison. This is a really important, effective thing to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Supporters, however, acknowledge that they can\u2019t prohibit employers from conducting any criminal background checks. For one thing, in the digital age, numerous databases are easily available online.<\/p>\n

Some employers have also voluntarily banned the question on applications, including Koch Industries Inc., led by conservative billionaires the Koch brothers. The move by Koch Industries last year underscores that it is not just a liberal-driven movement. Wal-Mart, Target, Home Depot and Bed Bath & Beyond have also \u201cbanned the box.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, it\u2019s unlikely that the legislation would gain the support of the business community in Colorado.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have employers that are hiring many, many employees at one time,\u201d explained Loren Furman, senior vice president for state and federal relations for the Colorado Association of Commerce and Industry. \u201cIf you don\u2019t have a way to know what that person\u2019s background truly is, then you\u2019re going to have to interview every single one of those people, and you\u2019re going to have to ask them exactly, \u2018have you been convicted of a crime?\u2019 It puts quite a huge administrative burden on employers.\u201d<\/p>\n

But for Bayfield resident David, the legislation can\u2019t come fast enough. David declined to provide his last name, citing the fact that he is still running from the stigma of his 1986 child-abuse conviction, related to a complicated divorce at the time. David received a deferred judgment in the Texas case, but even the deferred judgment was enough to follow him.<\/p>\n

\u201cOver the years I have had to start over in my career way too many times,\u201d David said. \u201cI was able to do it, but it was hard.<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes folks just need a hand to get restarted,\u201d he added. \u201cWhy make it harder than it needs to be?\u201d<\/p>\n

pmarcus@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Colorado among vanguard of states looking to limit criminal history disclosure for job-seekers<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":106761,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5736,5735],"tags":[2703,1605,1606,1255,13,4549],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-106760","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","category-news","tag-criminal","tag-employee","tag-employer","tag-employment","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-unemployment"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106760","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=106760"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106760\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/106761"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=106760"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=106760"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=106760"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=106760"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}