Across the nation, laws restricting employers from asking job candidates about criminal histories are on the rise. As of September 2017, more than 150 cities and counties and 29 states have adopted laws that limit what you can ask job applicants.

Known as “ban-the-box” legislation, the new rules are designed to give individuals with a criminal history a fair chance at employment. Removing the question ”Have you ever been convicted of a crime?” from job applications encourages employers to consider a candidate’s qualifications first, rather than rejecting someone outright because of a criminal past.

I am writing because I am a part of a demographic that really gets a bad break when it comes to seeking employment. I am a convicted felon although my charges were all from before 2007. I have worked hard to not be a statistic and continue to offend and return to the system. However anytime I do go seek a job or better job, as do many others, when they ask about our criminal past we have to say yes because they will run the background and if we lie and say no then that will disqualify us but if we say yes that will red flag us also. I am attaching a link to a webpage that has alot of info https://www.hrdirectapps.com/blog/does-your-state-ban-the-box-with-job-applications/ and to be honest the majority of cities and or states in the country ban these questions. NC allows these questions because lets face it the General Assembly is full of well you know whats. I do believe that it is time that this issue is tackled on the national level and I hope you can start that process. Not only to ban the questions but also please try to ban the companies from running backgrounds without a persons consent because there are so many websites that make money of that info. I, like many others, have paid our debt to society and we want to be productive citizens but as long as this practice is allowed then we can never compete for the really good jobs. We deserve a good life too.

Thank you