Bill would ban incarceration questions on job applications
By David Bienick, KCRA-TV
SACRAMENTO — The California Assembly has approved a bill that would ban cities and counties from asking about criminal history on initial job applications.
The bill, known as AB 1831, passed the Assembly Tuesday by a vote of 41-31.
The bill’s author is Roger Dickinson, a Democrat from Sacramento.
“Employment is the single biggest thing we can do to help people reintegrate into the community,” Dickinson told KCRA 3.
Dickinson noted that his legislation would only apply to city and county governments, not to private employers.
He also said it would only apply to the first step of the application process.
“But if a person then makes it through that initial screening, the city or county can subsequently ask about criminal history,” said Dickinson.
The FBI Sexual Offender Registery ??
i don’t think i like this idea.
The lack of a box to check whether they have a criminal history or not just gets the application past the first step, they can ask all they want at the next step.
I can see the applicant getting a little chance but I bet whether or not they are hired will still be weighed heavily by the criminal history.
As an HR person who hire a large number of people nationwide, I see this as a good thing. I do background checks on all our employees and because of some contract clauses with our customers, I am unable to hire people who have had felony arrests as long as 25 years ago. I have been unable to hire people (actually two in one week several years ago) who had felonies for (get this) walking in a train yard (a felony post 9/11). You all would be surprised by the number of people you know that have arrests and you just don’t know that about them. Something needs to be done as a job is what will stop them going back to crime. There needs to be a place between not bringing on a recent (violent) felon and letting someone start their lives again after making bad decisions as kids.