The effect of felony conviction on employment is not a ‘new’ issue. For as long as we’ve been arresting individuals and charging them with crimes, we’ve been dealing with how to treat these individuals when they return to society. The state of the economy in America and in Ohio has forced many sectors to cut-back on expenses and to lay-off valued employees. The unemployment rate in Ohio was nearly 9.7% as of March 2009. Some of the hardest hit in this type of job market are those that are already disadvantaged- single parents, the homeless and convicted felons.
Ohio, faced with the same shortages in revenue as its population, has been forced to reexamine old policies and pass legislation replacing outdated and ineffective social policies. One of the biggest areas of concern has been Ohio’s rising prison population and with it, the rising population of felons returning to the community. So far the best efforts have been focused on keeping people out of prison. For example, even as this article is being written, changes to Substitute H.B. 1- Ohio’s Budget Bill- include sentencing reforms and child support enforcement reforms intended to reduce the numbers of people sent to prison for low- level crimes; Thus, reducing the financial burden of the State and its people who must pay for the food, housing, and medical expenses of incarcerated individuals.
As more and more efforts are made to reduce the number of offenders sent to prison, more and more offenders will be placed in alternative monitored environments with an emphasis on reform rather than punishment. We hope that these alternative environments will help lower recidivism rates and integrate the offenders back into the community. Many more offenders will be asked to find and keep employment- a difficult task in Ohio’s current economic climate- even with a spotless criminal record.
Unfortunately, those who have been convicted of crimes face employment discrimination as employers- in a tough job market- continually choose ‘more desirable’ candidates to fill their open positions. Even when faced with a choice of two candidates with similar skill sets and even if a conviction is relatively minor- such as a minor drug possession conviction- employers will choose the candidate with a clean record; Employers are less willing to hire ex-offenders than any other disadvantaged group. (Holzer 1996 p.15). Thus, employers are screening out a whole segment of Ohio’s population who might prove (after three years of clean living) to be highly productive employees.
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