President Obama's Executive Order: Ban the Box Immediately

[Jefferson23]

* Two thumbs up for Obama.

Bio

Toni Holness is the Public Policy Counsel for the ACLU of Maryland. She advocates for reform in the Maryland General Assembly on a range of issues, including freedom of expression, criminal justice, reproductive freedom, and other civil liberties issues. Before joining the ACLU, she was a Staff Attorney with Maryland Legal Aid and a Women's Law and Public Policy Fellow at Georgetown University Law Center. She is a graduate of Temple University, where she completed a Master of Arts in Economics alongside her law degree. She completed her undergraduate degree at the University of Pennsylvania

Today President Obama announced an executive order that will help former prisoners transition back into the workforce with less limitations. The federal Ban the Box initiative would ban employers from asking job applicants about their criminal history at the beginning of the hiring process. Known to some locals as a Fair Chance Act, 19 states including Maryland have similar laws on the books. Joining me to discuss this is Maryland ACLU public policy associate Toni Holness. Thank you for joining me, Toni.

TONI HOLNESS: Thank you so much for having me, Eddie. It's good to talk to you again.

CONWAY: Okay. Some of our viewers might not know what Ban the Box means. Could you explain what that is?

HOLNESS: Sure. Ban the Box refers to an effort to limit employers' ability to inquire into an individual--into a candidate's criminal history. And that could take place at any point in the application process. It could be from the point at which the employer sends out an application request, or a request for applications, or it could be at the interview stage. So it could really happen at any point along the trajectory of the employment process. And the goal is really to expand the opportunities that folks with criminal histories have as far as the job market is concerned.

CONWAY: Okay. So what's the far-reaching implications this will have for thousands of ex-felons that are trying to enter the workforce?

HOLNESS: Sure. Now, the potential is really vast, you know, because the collateral consequences of a criminal conviction can be devastating for an individual, really, because it can preclude that person from getting a job. Even jobs that one would consider easy to get, you know, that are not very strenuous as far as credentials are concerned.

http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=15035

[JackInGreen]

1. I was trying to explain to a conservative associate

That that box only helps keep cons cons. I'm glad it's gone.

[Jefferson23]

2. Me too..it's not that Obama presumes that's all it will take. YET that is one

big fucking step in a better direction. I am thrilled about what he has done.

[yeoman6987]

3. Some are saying that sex offenders will get to work with kids

At hospitals and schools on military bases. Conservatives always go to the extremes. They have zero common sense.

[Jefferson23]

4. Too many cons will attack this step as you say, they have zero

common sense.

As I understand it, those individual cases will still carry the status of
sex offender, they will not be taken off the registry.