Indiana job seekers who also happen to have non-violent criminal pasts are to be treated with a little less prejudice.
A new law went into effect July 1, which allows ex-convicts to mask their backgrounds.
The offender has a legal right to petition the courts to limit access up to eight years after the conviction.
That is, if they remain clean.
The law been called the “legalization of perjury” by opponents.
According to Indianapolis Deputy Mayor Olgen Williams, if the court’s record is restricted, the person can actually say on a job application that they have not been convicted of the crimes listed in the restriction.
If you’ve committed a Class D felony or misdemeanor (which includes theft, drunken driving, drug charges or prostitution, basically any non-violent crime), you can block it so prospective employers won’t see it.
This doesn’t mean it’s expunged from your criminal record database, though.
I must have been thinking like a lawyer, oddly, because at first read, I agreed with Noble Superior Court Judge Robert Kirsch’s issue.
“It maybe goes too far – even basically giving a person the right to lie to an employer,” he said. “I don’t know if that’s the way we should be going.”
Somewhere, James Scott is probably wishing he lived in Indiana.
I wanted to know what happens if an employer goes into the background check and discovers candidate X has been convicted of meth use. Candidate X did not say anything on the job application of his jail time for his addiction to nail polish remover and Sudafed.
Does this then mean the candidate could be accused of lying and lose the opportunity anyway?
It is illegal to discriminate against people on the grounds that they were convicted of a felony in the past, but it does happen. It just can’t always be proved.
Since there was limited information on the Internet about the law, I went directly to the man who introduced it – Rep. Eric Turner.
I was glad to be chastened after he debunked my legal lying suspicions.
Turner told me the law says that if you petition the court to seal your records, “that prohibits them from releasing it [to anyone] except to another law enforcement agency.”
Now that sounds more promising.
Of course, with social networking, “nothing is going to prohibit a news article” from being released online, Turner said. “It’s out there.”
But the law will benefit the person who, for example, made a mistake 40 years ago but still may be ostracized by employers.
“You can go back to your sentencing court and have those records sealed,” Turner said.
Turner said he works quite a bit with business organizations “and none of them came forward and objected to this legislation.”
Many states have similar laws, some which allow people to fully expunge crimes from their records.
Turner said he worked on the law for almost eight years, and hopes it will help the 18,000 convicted men and women released every year.
“The best thing we can do to keep them from coming back is to help them find a new job,” he said.
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
It is illegal to discriminate against people on the grounds that they were convicted of a felony in the past,
That statement is not quite correct. It is illegal to withhold employment from someone convicted of a crime that has no relation to the job functions or qualifications or to the safety and well-being of others on site. As a practical matter though, a claim really only extends to those in a protected class, because, according to the EEOC, members of ethnic minorities are more likely to have criminal convictions than those that are not. Therefore, according to the EEOC, denying employment to people with criminal records can have a discriminatory impact.
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I stand corrected, Janette! Thanks for the response.
It is my understanding the new law says a person can petition AFTER eight years since fulfilling requirements of sentencing, not restrict access UP TO eight years.
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Well, This is a law or change that should’ve taken place years ago, being a convicted felon myself, I always thought for an employer to judge someone just because of something they did in their past was wrong. cause it’s hard enough when ya get outta jail/prison just to try and re-start your life, but when a person can’t even get a job due to there past convictions, how does society expect one to stay outta trouble, or re-start their lives. Another Law that I feel is Definitly a law that needs to be changed, would be that of the Welfare Law. That states ANYONE convicted of a Felon DRUG CHARGE CAN NOT Receive Food Stamps, and gotta wait at least a year or more to try and refile and receive TANF. Now this law is definitly an unfair discriminating law agianst drug related offenders. So, as long as your a Murderer,Sex Offender, Robber, Rapist Ect. your go to go our f up goverment will help ya out food stamps, housing, tanf anything to get one started after prison, But god forbid be a convicted drug offender and our goverment says oh well can’t help ya out. Now whats Wrong with this law ??? EVERYTHING..
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There is extreme prejudice when it comes to legal matters that have been ‘settled’. For non-violent offenders, anyone can look it up on the internet and find every detial of their case. This is true whethere the person is guilty or now. The mycase internet system needs to be taken down for it is illegal (remember innocent to proven guilty). The problem is that everyone knows of the site and employers look at it without cost or effort with the exception of spending five minutes of their time.
Indiana is far behind other states in this area re: sealing and expungement.
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