For years there has been a push for Ban The Box Legislation
Some disagree about banning the asking of arrests, while others agree that you shouldn’t be kept from getting employment so you can get a job and take care of your needs.
Nationwide, 37 states and over 150 cities and counties have adopted what is widely known as “ban the box” so that employers consider a job candidate’s qualifications first.
While it is true that some people never change the fact remains is that many do. For someone to be able to seek to be a law abiding citizen and take care of their own needs they will first have to be able to get a job to do so. Many employers however stand in the way of those seeking to do just that.
This has been seen as a humanitarian initiative since everyone deserves the right to be employed and have the right to take care of themselves.
On the other side we have employers that stand to lose if the employee doesn’t perform well at their job, the customers suffer and the company could lose lots of money due to the fact an employer is responsible for what their employees do, so the employers do have a point as there are people out there that will seek to destroy a business if they get an unpleasant experience while doing business with the company. You also have liabilities that the company would be responsible for if the employee does something that causes damages to a person or their property. So we also need to work on that aspect as well.
Not only does a person have a right to take care of themselves by being gainfully employed you also have to think about the children of those people and their spouse, we have children suffering due to the failure of businesses to hire people just because at one point in their life they were arrested. Think about that a kid out there might be going hungry because a business won’t hire someone due to an arrest 10 years ago or more.
We also have to think about the taxes, if you work to fight for the right of a person to be gainfully employed they will be a tax paying citizen and paying in to help society. Those taxes go into helping build roads and maintain our state.
President Trump signs the Fair Chance Act, one of the final criminal justice reform priorities of the late Congressman Elijah Cummings
Glenn, Carrie. “Justice Action Network.” Justice Action Network, December 21, 2019. https://www.justiceactionnetwork.org/news/fair-chance-act-becomes-federal-law-one-year-after-passage-of-groundbreaking-first-step-act.
So it has been years since the passing of the Fair Chance Act and we haven’t seen any news reporting of this leading to the downfall of our nation, or states.
So far however the state of South Carolina has not adopted the Ban The Box legislation to follow along with other states that have given people a fair chance at getting a job. Hopefully this will change soon to help thousands of people in South Carolina get jobs and take care of their family.
In Oconee County, South Carolina they recently had a crack down on the panhandlers in the area, while it is true that some refuse to work there are some that would, but they face the barrier that many do and that is not being able to get hired due to a prior arrest record, many employers don’t put reasonable limits on usage of arrest records which is why the Ban The Box AKA Fair Chance Act has become much needed legislation.
