Have You Ever Been Convicted of a Felony?

Many job applications have a special box asking applicants if they have ever been convicted of a felony. But advocates for ex-cons say the question handcuffs those who want to stay on the straight and narrow through legitimate employment.

Now Detroit has become the latest city to consider banning the box, according to a report on National Public Radio’s Marketplace.

Derek Blackmon is an employee of a program called Flip the Script with Goodwill Industries, giving advice about how to find a job to men who were recently released from prison. He explains that many ex-offenders never get to an actual interview.

That’s because checking the felony conviction box on the job application will often send their forms straight to the reject pile. Officials in Detroit are hoping to remove the question from government job applications and make city contractors do the same.

Boston and Chicago have already dropped the question from job applications.

To read the program transcript, click here.

To find out more about obstacles most inmates face upon release from prison, visit Justice Fellowship’s Clemency and Overcoming Barriers to Reentry and Prisoner Reentry resource pages.