Our Stories
Share the power of long-term recovery. If you are in recovery, a family member, friend or ally of someone in recovery, we want to hear your recovery story!
Learn more...
Faces & Voices of Recovery's book page
has information on many of the growing number of recovery-related publications. Its a work in progress, so please let us know of other books that you think we should include. Check it out!
|
Recovery in the News
For this rock band, playing heals the hurt of addiction
Talia Buford
The Providence Journal
December 26, 2006
St. Paul would welcome a few good felons.
The city decided this week to stop requiring job hopefuls to state on their applications whether they've ever been convicted of a crime.
The immediate goal is to make sure the city doesn't discriminate against applicants with criminal records, which is prohibited under state law. Backers said the broader intent is to give people with minor rap sheets a chance to turn their lives around.
"After 9/11, with the increasing number of background checks employers are doing, this has become a problem for people that have made a mistake in their lives," said Guy Gambill, advocacy coordinator for the Minneapolis-based Council on Crime and Justice.
With an increasing number of people moving through the criminal courts including a disproportionate number of minorities Gambill said it's important to make sure ex-cons have access to jobs.
No one knows for sure how many Minnesotans have criminal records, but the number is increasing. More than 130,000 Minnesotans were on probation in 2005, up about 30 percent from a decade earlier. The state's prison population has almost doubled during that time to nearly 9,000 inmates.
Gambill said there are two main factors in rehabilitating those who spend time in jail family visits during incarceration and finding a well-paying job after being released. A criminal history makes getting a job more difficult, Gambill said, even if the conviction had nothing to do with the work being sought.
Why, Gambill asks, should someone busted for pot at age 18 be prevented from getting a job 15 years later?
"Why is that even a factor?" he said.
Under state law, people cannot be denied government jobs or state licenses needed to get a job in the private sector because of their criminal history. An exception exists for jobs that relate directly to the crime committed, and the law does not cover police officers and firefighters.
Mayor Chris Coleman made the change this week, and ordered the city's Department of Human Resources to investigate whether ex-convicts have been discriminated against in city hiring practices in the past.
In a letter ordering the change, Coleman also said he would work with the private sector to "encourage adoption of a similar policy."
But the city's move away from asking about a job applicant's criminal history goes against the grain of what is happening at private companies.
More employers are adding questions about an applicant's criminal background and increasing the scope and depth of criminal background checks, said Joe Schmitt, a labor and employment attorney in Minneapolis who represents corporations.
The trend is driven by the rise of legal claims against companies for negligent hiring and the desire to distinguish between applicants as soon as possible.
Background checks on employees are becoming more common as national databases and computerized records have become increasingly available.
"As the ability of employers to do background checks increases, one measure of a negligent hiring claim is you didn't do as much as you could have," Schmitt said. "As the bar raises in terms of what you can do, then the bar raises in terms of what you should do."
The Council on Crime and Justice has been lobbying cities to implement changes. Gambill said St. Paul's decision makes it a national leader in the effort so far, only Boston has completely removed the question from city job applications.
The city started down this road a year ago, when it moved the criminal question to a part of the application seen only by the human resources department, but not hiring managers in other departments, said HR director Angie Nalezny.
Nalezny also said the city conducts background checks when the applicant would work with children or have access to money or sensitive information, and would know whether those applicants have a criminal record.
Therefore, there's no risk of a sex offender being assigned to work with children, Nalezny said.
"Anybody that works in a rec center, absolutely we're going to do a background check on them," Nalezny said.
Julie Forster contributed to this report.
Jason Hoppin can be reached at jhoppin@pioneerpress.com or 651-292-1892.