The Real Cost of Prisons Weblog

The question will remain on applications for law enforcement and also social services jobs that people with a record won't qualify for. For other jobs, the person's convictions will be reviewed by human resources specialists to see if they are relevant to the job.

County officials hope to have the pilot program in place by January.

"You still do the background check. But it's not the first question," said board President Keith Carson, who sponsored the resolution to make the change.

The action makes the county part of a nascent movement to "ban the box" from job applications and is part of wider efforts to help ex-cons become productive members of society, instead of repeat offenders.

Those efforts include a proposal by state Sen. Don Perata, D-Oakland, to curb violence in some Oakland
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and Richmond neighborhoods that includes re-entry and internship programs for probationers and parolees; a bill carried by state Assemblywoman Wilma Chan, D-Oakland, which Carson's office worked on, that sets up pre-release assessments for people leaving prison; and efforts to spread the word about criminal-record expungements.

A number of cities and counties, including Boston, Chicago and San Francisco, have taken the question off applications. And ex-offenders' advocates are hoping that private businesses follow suit.

It's seen by some as a particularly important move in California, which releases one out of every five prisoners in the United States, federal statistics from 2003 show.

Some 3,300 parolees have returned to Alameda County in the first six months of this year alone, Carson said. And by the end of their first year out of prison, nearly half will get in trouble again, he said.

Last year, 12 percent of people applying for county jobs listed convictions on their applications, human resources director Denise Eaton-May told the Civil Service Commission last week. Close to 5 percent of people with convictions were hired for county jobs last year, about the same percentage as people without convictions, numbers from Eaton-May's department showed.

Dorsey Nunn of All of Us Or None, which fights discrimination against ex-cons, spearheaded the "ban the box" campaign in San Francisco and also brought the issue to Carson. He said the question scares away many ex-offenders who are seeking to straighten out their lives.

Many think the purpose of asking the question is simply to weed them out of the process, he said.

But in doing so, municipalities and businesses may be tossing out good workers, said Maurice Emsellem of the National Employment Law Project in Oakland. And they are making it infinitely harder for people who desperately need jobs to get them, Emsellem said.

"One of the major barriers to people successfully re-entering the community is an inability to get a job," Emsellem said.

Linda Walker has worked as a child support specialist for five years in Contra Costa County. But the Pittsburg woman believes a 14-year-old petty theft conviction prevented her from getting the same job in another county where she applied.

She wrote on her application that she would prefer to discuss the conviction question at an interview, but was told she wouldn't be considered if she didn't check the box.

"I've proven I'm capable of doing this job," Walker said. "I said I would discuss it during the interview. I feel that should be good enough."

Walker said she is a homeowner, a taxpayer and a mother, as well as someone with many years' experience in her field. But she said being forced to check the conviction box puts other incorrect pictures into employers' minds.

"Having to answer that question puts all kinds of ideas in the average person's head — a bank robber, a murderer. I ain't done none of that," she said.

Contact Michele R. Marcucci at mmarcucci@angnewspapers.com.