How Ex-Felons Can Get Hired in Tech

How Ex-Felons Can Get Hired in Tech

Mark Feffer

Convicted felons face a notoriously difficult challenge in finding work after their release from prison. According to the Center for Economic and Policy Research, “It is not simply that individuals who commit crimes are less likely to work in the first place, but rather, that felony convictions or time in prison act independently to lower the employment prospects of ex-offenders.”

That remains true despite a number of jurisdictions—including the federal government and 24 states—enacting “Ban the Box” legislation that requires employers to ask about criminal convictions only after initial screenings. In addition, more governments now push employers to consider issues such as whether a conviction has any bearing on the job on offer, mitigating circumstances and evidence of rehabilitation.

When it comes to convicted felons’ job prospects, a number of officials and community organizations believe that technology is an unusually forgiving industry. That’s especially true in Silicon Valley and the East Coast’s technology hubs, said Chuck Pattillo, general manager and executive officer of the California Prison Industry Board, a state organization that provides offenders with work and training programs while still incarcerated.

The main concern of tech companies, Pattillo said, is whether an individual can do the job. “Yes, there’s going to be a background check. But there’s more to a background check than a yes or no question.”

According to the online community Jobsforfelonshub.com, a number of brand-name tech firms will consider convicted felons for employment. These companies include Apple, AT&T, IBM, Sony, Tesla and Xerox. So will enterprises with large IT operations, such as Boeing, Kohl’s and United Airlines.

In many ways, former prisoners should conduct a job search like anyone else: with lots of research, targeting, and planning. But there’s also no question that a criminal record presents extra hurdles during the process. Bootcamps and other tech-centric programs, both inside and outside of prison, may have helped a former prisoner master certain technical skills, but they still have to pay special attention to other areas. Some things to think about:

Always, Always Be Honest

“Be 100 percent transparent,” said Chris Redlitz, co-founder of the San Francisco-based non-profit The Last Mile, which recently partnered with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation and the California Prison Industry Authority to create Code.7370, an effort to train prisoners in HTML, Ruby on Rails, CSS, Python and other technologies. Those who successfully complete the program will be eligible to join “The Last Mile Works,” a Web-development business that will serve paying customers from inside prison. “In my opinion, the sooner the issue comes out, the better.”

According to Pattillo, the CPIB encourages people to include their prison time on their résumé. “Basically, you want to say, ‘Yes, I was in prison and this is what I learned there,’” he said. Programs like The Last Mile’s, he notes, “are well-known in the tech industry.”

“It’s critical to bring up your past before the employer discovers it in a background check,” added Mark Drevno, executive director of Jails to Jobs, a Lafayette, Calif., non-profit that helps ex-offenders prepare for their job search. He coaches former inmates to focus on identifying the hiring manager and having a frank conversation with them. “Tell them your turnaround story,” he said. “You want to show them how you’ve changed.” Ultimately, the manager should become your advocate with HR, placing your background in proper context.

Understand the Background Check

Initiatives such as Ban the Box are designed to give you a chance to prove yourself as a professional. That way, when employers do learn of your history, they’re more apt to weigh it alongside your skills and personality.
Companies that conduct background checks say that many employers look beyond the simple fact that you’ve committed a crime. They take into account your offense, how much time since it occurred, whether you’re a repeat offender and how your record relates to the job at hand.
A number of HR executives suggest the background check serves as something of an integrity test. If you’ve gone through an interview with the hiring manager and didn’t volunteer the story of your conviction, most companies will end the process as soon as they learn of your offense.

Pay Attention to Your Appearance (and Lose the Tattoos)

A number of organizations teach ex-offenders about how to present themselves through their dress, grooming and speech. You need to demonstrate that you can make the transition from prison culture to workplace culture.

In particular, Drevno said, think about your tattoos (if you have any): “A quarter to a third of people coming out of prison have visible anti-social, gang-related tattoos, and those are real job-stoppers.” Fortunately, many groups and dermatologists will remove them free-of-charge. Jails to Jobs provides a list of such resources here.


Remember that the tech world is in something of a labor crisis right now. Recruiters, HR practitioners, managers and other industry experts agree that there are more jobs than candidates in areas such as software development. While paying heed to Drevno’s advice to only apply for jobs you’re truly qualified for, keep in mind Redlitz’s observation that, in this environment, “people are less concerned with your background and more concerned with your product.

This article appeared on Dice.com here

How Ex-Felons Can Get Hired in Tech

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Felon with DUI needs help finding jobs

Felon with DUI need help finding jobs

Hello,

In 2007 I was charged with two separate DUI offenses. The first one that I had ever received was in March and I got a second one in October. I received these charges during my own personal time off from work. At the time I was a driver for a beer distributor, ironically. I didn't report back to work because I was certain that I would be fired, after all I was unable to perform the job for which I was initially hired. Since then, I have had much difficulty finding a job, and it is extremely depressing. I have a family to support, and I am desperately seeking any help that I can get.

 Felon with DUI needs help finding jobs

Hello,

I'm guessing that your license has been taken away. Your career may be over and it may not be. I'm going to suggest two things. First, I suggest that look into a Certificate of Rehabilitation.  A Certificate of Rehabilitation is a court order, which declares that a person who has been convicted of a felony is rehabilitated. If a petition for a Certificate of Rehabilitation is granted, it is forwarded to the Governor by the granting court and constitutes an application for a pardon.

Then you want to look into a Certificate of Good Conduct. The purpose of is is to provide evidence that you have been rehabilitated for employment and other purposes. It shows you are a law-abiding citizen and fully rehabilitated. It has no other legal effect.


These certificates are not available in all states.  It would be a good idea to contact your local legal aid office where you may get assistance at a low cost or even no cost.


As always, I suggest ex-offenders and felons looking for jobs to contact their local One-stop Career center with help with their job search efforts. You can find the nearest center to you here:

http://www.servicelocator.org

I hope this helps.

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Felon with DUI needs help finding jobs

The Next Step in Getting Felons on the Right Path and Into the Workplace

By JIM GERAGHTY, National Review

The next step, announced today at the Koch network’s winter meeting, is a “getting back to work initiative” designed to follow up on the legislation, launched in partnership with the Society for Human Resource Management, the trade association for human resources employees. The initiative will inform businesses on how to recruit, hire, and keep employees who were previously incarcerated.

Charles Koch told the assembled members of the network, “when you hear that one out of four [Americans have a criminal record], this isn’t just some small isolated piece, this involves everybody throughout society.”

SHRM’s CEO Johnny Taylor said his organization had found that as many as 80 percent of employers supported the idea of hiring felons – but a much smaller percentage had actually hired many. They found three main obstacles among employers. The first obstacle was legal compliance issues, including most federal agencies and contractors that deal with security issues or require a federal security clearance. The second was the perception of civil liability on the part of employers, and a fear that hiring a felon could lead to a lawsuit if the felon committed a crime on the job. The third, Taylor said, was a psychological NIBMY (Not In My Backyard) mentality – that plenty of employers and employees liked the idea of hiring felons, but not at their own workplaces. He’s hoping the “employer toolkit” offered by SHRM and the Koch network will mitigate those forces.

Taylor admitted the liability issue was one of the most challenging, as the potential legal risk to employers varied from state to state. He noted that studies indicate that felons who had been released from prison were no more likely to commit crimes in the workplace than employees with no criminal records.

Tips to Help Ex-Felons Get Jobs

“Regardless of the employee, you do your diligence,” said Mark Holden, the general counsel for Koch Industries. “We’ve been hiring people with criminal records for as long as I’ve been here, about quarter of a century, and we’ve never had that issue. When you hire someone, either way, you’re taking a chance on them. We’ve hired people from the best schools, from the best background, and we’ve later found they’ve stolen from us.”

Taylor said that depending upon the measuring stick, there are anywhere from 6.6 million to 7 million unfilled jobs in the United States right now, and each year, roughly 650,000 people leave prison and reenter society.

“The First Step Act’s prison reform elements include education and skill training,” Holden said. “More people are going to be coming out for prison skilled and ready to go, ready to get back in the game. When employers choose to put applications of convicted felons in the wastepaper basket, it’s a huge wasted opportunity. A lot of these people are very hungry and very humble.”

Chris Wright, the chief executive officer of Liberty Oilfield Services, said that in his experience, released felons “have a passion to prove themselves. Really, you’re hiring the heart. If they’re going to work hard when no one is looking, and if they’re someone who will do the right thing, even under stress, you’re going to win.”

Holden noted that the while the Koch network pushed for the First Step Act and is eager to see America’s businesses start hiring the recently released, they oppose government mandates requiring employers to hire felons, and want to see employers freely embrace the option.

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Eric Mayo

Woman gets second chance with pardon

• By JULIE DRAKE Valley Press

Woman gets second chance with pardon

Monica An­drade served 16 months in prison starting in 2002, fol­lowed by three years on parole.

Her crime? Man­u­fac­tur­ing a controlled sub­stance for sale, and child endangerment. More specifically, An­dra­de manufactured meth­am­phet­amine while her 13-year-old son was home.

Andrade completed her sentence and set out to change her life. She went to AV-East Kern Second Chance for help.

Michelle Egberts, an ex-felon herself, is founder and executive director of Sec­ond Chance. She ran “ex­pungement” workshops to help ex-felons clear their rec­ords. The two-hour work­shops are packed with information including the barriers people face as they work to clear their record.

“She educates on all the records that are out there,” Andrade said.

Expungement is a court-ordered process that allows an offender to seal or erase the legal record of an arrest or criminal conviction in the eyes of the law.

An individual is eligible for expungement if he or she committed a felony or misdemeanor and was not incarcerated in state prison, has fulfilled his or her probation, and was not convicted of an ineligible crime such as rape or child sexual abuse.

Andrade, 50, served time in prison, so she was not eligible to have her record expunged. But she was eligible for a Certificate of Rehabilitation.

A Certificate of Re­hab­il­itation is available only for people who have gone to prison. They can get it after a certain amount of time if they meet the criteria. If granted, the doc­ument restores some of the rights of citizenship that were forfeited as a result of a felony con­vic­tion. It also acts as an aut­o­matic application and rec­om­mendation for a pardon from the governor.

Andrade attended four or five of Egberts’ work­shops to begin work on get­ting her Certificate of Re­hab­ilitation. She re­ceived the document in December 2016.

“There is an 11-page ques­tionnaire just from the courts, from the DA’s office, that needs to be addressed, and if it’s not addressed cor­rect­ly you’re not going to get your COR,” Egberts said.

The application package includes character refer­en­ces from at least four peop­le who know you went to prison and have turned your life around. Andrade had at least 10 letters of rec­om­mendation. Andrade submitted her application for the pardon, including another seven pages of ques­tions, in August 2017.

Former California Gov. Jerry Brown signed An­drade’s pardon on Nov. 21.

“She’s our first pardon,” Egberts said.

Egberts estimated Sec­ond Chance has helped more than 2,000 people ex­punge their records since 2012.

“Everybody is eligible so I don’t discriminate,” Eg­berts said

However, she noted in­div­iduals who committed crimes such as murder, rape, or kidnapping are not eligible for a certificate of rehabilitation.

Andrade visited Egberts’ Mojave home to talk about her pardon and how she is working toward creating a bet­ter life for herself and her family.

Andrade’s 13-year-old son, Carlos Boquin, is now 30.

“He is my idol because he never gave up on me,” An­drade said.

Boquin continues to help his mother and her two youngest children, his sis­ters, after Andrade’s hus­band was deported back to Guatemala six years ago. She lives with Boquin and his family.

“It was either fall back and go back to my bad ways and repeat history again, or this time, my son said, ‘Mom, I’ll watch the kids, you go to school,’ ” An­dra­de said.

Andrade went to school. She received an associate of arts degree in 2014. She received a bachelor’s de­gree in criminal justice from California State Uni­ver­sity, Bakersfield in 2017.

She is working on her master’s degree in crim­in­al justice at Grand Canyon University. Andrade hopes to become a probation officer in the juvenile div­is­ion for the Los Angeles De­partment of Probation some­day. Her ultimate goal is law school.

“I’ve been through it; I’ve experienced it. So that now I can understand and I can relate, so that if anyone wants to talk to me I can be there for them, “ Andrade said. “That’s my goal — is to be there for someone else, to help someone else.”

Andrade got involved with meth because of a weight problem.

She weighed nearly 300 pounds at one point and was in abusive marriage. She started losing weight with the assistance of a doc­tor who prescribed fen­flur­mine-phentermine, or fen-phen, an anti-obesity treat­ment later found to cause potential fatal heart prob­lems that led to its with­drawal from the mar­ket.

Andrade met drug traf­fick­ers through her for­mer sec­urity job. They in­tro­duced her to meth to help her lose weight. The meth gave Andrade energy that kept her busy cleaning her house and helped keep the weight off. Andrade said she had children and could not go to the gym.

One thing led to another and Andrade eventually start­ed to cook her own meth. That eventually led to prison.

Andrade has seven chil­dren, The two oldest are boys and the rest are girls. At one point her five old­est children were taken away from her. All are now adults. Andrade has seven grand­children.

Andrade did not expect to get her pardon as soon as she did.

“It couldn’t come at a bet­ter time,” Andrade said.

After five years renting the same home, Andrade and her family face evic­tion.

“I don’t make a whole lot of money; none of us do,” she said.

Andrade is concerned that although she has a gov­ernor’s pardon, po­ten­tial landlords might see her rec­ord after a background check and deny her.

The background check will show what Andrade was convicted her and her prison term, along with her Certificate of Re­hab­ilitation and her pardon.

Egberts started AV-East Kern Second Chance with her former partner, Rich­ard Macias, a retired law en­forcement officer with 25 years’ experience. Macias now serves as director em­er­itus.

“Everybody deserves to be rehabilitated,” Egberts said.

Egberts was convicted in 2004 for grand theft. Her case involved more than $100,000.

“I have not been able to fiscally pay off my res­tit­u­tion. But I have done it and more by giving back to my community.” Egberts said.

Egberts is not proud of her crimes. She spent al­most three years in prison. When she left prison, she had a four-year degree in bus­i­ness administration with an understudy in mar­keting.

“Couldn’t find a job for nothing,” Egberts said.

Egberts still has not found a job. She has not cleared her own record.

“I haven’t had time,” she said.

That is because she con­tin­ues to help other felons. She no longer has a place to conduct the workshops, so she works from home. She walked across the room and picked up a package she received in the mail re­cently.

“There’s 13 cases in it from Long Beach,” Egberts said.

They do not make any money from Second Chance. Any money they do get goes toward supplies such as postage and ink.

“We’re looking for a home,” Egberts said.

Explained: Misdemeanors, Felonies, Pardons, and Expungements

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Eric Mayo

Juvenile offender wants Job Search Advice

Juvenile offender wants Job Search Advice

 

I recently was hired at a nursing home and was railed through all the pre employment paper work everyone goes threw these days. I had a drug test, back ground check and had to submit my fingerprints. Well I got a call that something was found in my back ground that has to be looked into further. All they information I was given was that the incident occurred in 2003 making me 16 and I of course knew right away what it was. I was charged with a misdemeanor and did 1 year probation. I like many other people had it seal away because I was a juvenile. Can they not hire me because of this? This is the only thing I have ever done in my entire life. I have never been arrested nor even gotten pulled over. My adult record is clean.

Juvenile offender wants Job Search Advice

Hello,

I'm not sure where you live but most states seal juvenile records from the public. In most cases they are only visible to law enforcement, the court system and government agencies. The one instance that it would not be sealed is the case of a sexual offense. If that is not your situation, you should seek legal advice as to why your offense is visible.

Many ex-offenders and felons looking for jobs often need legal advice. I suggest your local legal aid office.

I hope this helps.

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Companies Hire Felons | Companies That Hire Felons | Companies That Hire Ex-offenders | Employers That Hire Ex-offenders | Employers That Hire Felons | Jobs For Felons | Jobs For Ex-offenders | Jobs That Hire Felons | Resumes for Felons | Felon Friendly Jobs | Felon Friendly Employers | Jobs for Felons | Jobs For People That Have Felonies | Jobs For People With A Criminal Record

Juvenile offender wants Job Search Advice