San Antonio bans the box

growing list of cities and states to remove questions about previous criminal history from job applications. The policy – already adopted in 150 cities and counties and 24 states across the country – requires employers to wait until job applicants have been interviewed before requiring them to declare any criminal history. “I think from a long-term perspective what we’re trying to do here (in) this city is to create more options for people who have already served their time but also set an example for private employers,” Mayor Ivy Taylor, who endorsed the policy early on, told the Rivard Report. Earlier this year, 19 global businesses, such as Starbucks, Uber, and Google voluntarily implemented fair-chance hiring practices, as part of the Fair Chance Business Pledge. Smaller businesses, cities, and states have quickly been following suit. Over the past decade, pressure to remove criminal histories from job applications has increased as the nation’s prison system has expanded. Though the U.S. has less than 5% of the world’s population, its citizens make up nearly 25% of the world’s prisoners – more than any other nation, including China, a non-democratic country with four times our population. Lori Steward, San Antonio’s director of Human Resources, said as of two years ago applicants’ criminal histories have been kept confidential from hiring supervisors, and background checks are only performed after a conditional offer has been made. Banning the box altogether, she said, would avoid discouraging potential candidates from applying for jobs.]]>