Felonies

There's a push under way to "ban the box", to prohibit employers, and now colleges, from asking if an applicant has committed a felony:

In an April 28 post on "Homeroom," the official blog of the Department of Education (ED), ED called on schools to remove the criminal background question from admissions.

"This Second Chance Month ... ED calls upon institutions across the country to re-examine their admissions and student service policies and holistically determine how they can better serve and support current and formerly incarcerated students. We call on you to ban the box," ED urged.

The “ban the box" slogan alluded to a campaign started by the civil rights group All of Us or None in 2004 which aims to remove questions asking about prior criminal convictions from employment application materials.

I understand the sentiment, but let's not be simpleminded about this.  Employers and schools would be negligent if they didn't prevent certain types of people from being on site.  Should a financial firm hire a white collar criminal?  Should universities have violent sex offenders on campus?  Should grand theft not be a consideration for certain types of jobs?  Drug trafficking offenses?

The people pushing this silliness would not deign to work around convicted felons, but they expect us to.  They're the worst type of hypocrites.

Update, 5/20/23:  Another view:

Asking college applicants about their criminal history can have mixed results for colleges looking to reduce racial bias, experts say.

Though higher education experts recommend colleges refrain from asking applicants about their criminal history to avoid bias, some scholars suggest the policy may backfire because admissions officials might falsely assume applicants of color have a criminal record.

What?  All those DIE-loving university administrators might assume dark-skinned students are bad?  Perish the thought! 

Economists Jennifer Doleac of Texas A&M University and Benjamin Hansen of the University of Oregon made similar point in a July 2016 paper titled “The Unintended Consequences of ‘Ban the Box’: Statistical Discrimination and Employment Outcomes When Criminal Histories Are Hidden.”

“Their goal is to improve employment outcomes for those with criminal records, with a secondary goal of reducing racial disparities in employment,” the paper argued. “However, removing criminal history information could increase statistical discrimination against demographic groups that include more ex-offenders.”