[In the News] All of Us or None Working to Bring Down Barriers to Prisoner Re-Entry in San Francisco
An October vote by the San Francisco Board of Supervisors puts the city closer to ending hiring discrimination against people with past convictions. The board voted unanimously in support of a resolution to “ban the box” – a check box on city employment applications that asks, “Have you been convicted by a court?” The resolution was part of a campaign by All of Us or None, an organization of formerly-incarcerated people, prisoners and their families.
This question on the public employment application proves a barrier to people trying to find employment after they leave the penal system, even when their conviction may have nothing to do with the job they applied for, and even in cases where the conviction is many years old. A recent article in the Los Angeles Times cited research by a Princeton sociologist showing that checking a felony box on a job application reduced applicants’ chances of getting an interview by at least 50%.
The All of Us or None campaign seeks to end discrimination against former prisoners and people with past criminal histories. In addition to “banning the box,” the campaign also calls for limits on background checks of job applicants to ensure that such information is collected at an appropriate point in the application process and only on convictions relevant to the job. The Alliance sent a letter of support on the resolution to the San Francisco Human Rights Commission in May 2005.
All of Us or None has pushed San Francisco to focus on the issue of discrimination against people with criminal backgrounds as part of a massive city civil service reform effort. A review revealed that though the city has an existing policy of considering applications on a case-by-case basis, it is not being carried out. Linda Evans, an organizer with All of Us or None, explains, “According to their own policy as it exists now in San Francisco, there should be no disqualifying convictions except those that are legislatively mandated. For example, if you want a job in law enforcement, California law dictates that you cannot have felony convictions. If you want to work in California schools, you cannot have certain types of sex offenses.”
In reality, convictions that have nothing to do with the job do have an impact on the city’s consideration of job applicants. To address this problem, All of Us or None proposes that criminal background checks be performed only at the final hiring stages, when job candidates have made it through the interview process. Evans says, “What we’re asking for is equal opportunity in employment — an end to discrimination, and that’s not happening. And it cannot happen if they are collecting information at the first stage of the application procedure.”
Now that the Board of Supervisors has urged banning the box, the next step for All of Us or None is to work with the civil service commission, the city’s department of human resources and the city attorney to set and implement policy. The civil service commission will have a hearing on the issue on December 19.
For more information on the campaign or to get involved, please contact Linda Evans with All of Us or None at linda@prisonerswithchildren.org.
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