On Thursday, April 24th, at a New Jersey Faith Leaders Press Conference at the First Baptist Church of Lincoln Gardens, in Somerset, NJ,  Senator Sandra Cunningham described the key provisions of NJ Assembly Bill A1999, the “Ban the box” bill, which she co-sponsored. She explained bill would ban employers from inquiring about a job applicant’s prior arrest or conviction history until after the employer decides to make an offer of conditional employment to the prospective employer. The bill would not ban consideration on an ex-offender’s criminal history, but does move the inquiry to later in the job seeking process, giving the applicant a chance to present him/herself, accomplishments, skills, and appropriateness for the job before having to answer for what might be decades old criminal history records. Many employers don’t even bother further reviewing job applicants or calling them in for an interview, if they see the individual has a criminal history (even without knowing the nature of that history or how distant it might be). 

Moreover, the bill requires that if an employer retracts an offer of conditional employment upon learning of the applicant’s criminal history, the employer must justify the retraction by identifying how the criminal history would negative impact on the applicant’s ability to do the job or poses an identifiable risk to the employer. The bill automatically exempts employers from this burden in cases where the applicant is barred from the type of job offered by law or other legal restriction (e.g., by parole). Continue reading here…