70 Million Americans Are Having Their Day

I’ve been involved helping those impacted by the criminal justice system find jobs for the past 11 years. I began my work in the nonprofit sector. Most of our clients had relatively little education or job experience.  At that time, correctional facilities were allotting minimal resources to providing them with training or education. 

My job at the nonprofit was to call on businesses and convince them to hire our clients who had records. “Fair Chance” hiring had not yet gained traction. My approach was to appeal to their sense of corporate responsibility, reminding them they owed it to the towns and cities in which they did business to hire those who desperately needed a job. In doing so, they could Improve their image and reap limitless value. 
In short, I sought to shame them into making Fair Chance hires. Sometimes this approach worked, but it rarely resulted in many hires. 

But then a confluence of events changed the landscape dramatically as it relates to Second Chance hiring. Black Lives Matter and a series of highly publicized deaths rocked the nation, causing us all to look deeply at the conscious and unconscious biases that are still very much alive in our country. 

Concurrently, the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) published the results of a study that showed that HR professionals believe those with records do as well as—if not better—than those with no records. Other studies show their retention is also better. Fair Chance hiring was no longer just the right thing to do; it was also very good business.

Their entrée to the workplace is no longer through an act of philanthropy; there are 70 million Americans with records (1/3 of all adults). As more and more employers discover just how well they perform on the job, combined with increased training and educational opportunities accessed while incarcerated, they will emerge as a formidable force to be reckoned with in the job market.  Soon we’ll wonder how we could have ever neglected to recognize their value to business. 

For those with records, through the amassing of empirical data, evolving cultural attitudes and prevailing economic conditions, this population is having its moment. 

History will look back upon 2025 as the year of Carceral Liberation.