Tackling Employment Discrimination Against Former Prisoners

By Rachel Benioff

April 2008 - It’s a familiar scene – you are filling out a job application. The question appears: “Have you ever been convicted of a felony?” You easily check “no” without giving it another thought and move on. But imagine you have just been released from prison, with $200 in “gate money” to your name, in need of a job so you can pay for housing and perhaps regain custody of your child, determined to make a new start. If you knew that 80 percent of Los Angeles employers would not hire someone with a conviction record, according to a recent survey, would you check “yes” or “no”? For the thousands of people released on parole each year in Los Angeles County — 125 per day, many of whom return to South Los Angeles — checking this box is     Go to Article