The Ban the Box campaign is an effort to encourage removing questions about arrest history on job and educational applications. The campaign recommends avoiding such questions until a conditional job offer has already been extended, or if one’s criminal history directly relates to the position. This campaign prevents discrimination by certain industries that practice a “blanket ban”, which bars all individuals who the box affirming a criminal history from consideration for employment. Although the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was aimed at preventing blanket bans, employers have managed to find loopholes. This campaign affects African-Americans to the highest degree because they are disproportionately represented in the criminal justice system. While African Americans only represent about 16% of the total national population, they represent 40% of the total incarcerated population in the United States.

Individuals with prior criminal histories need access to fair employment opportunities in order to improve their quality of life. Instead of promoting employment in efforts to prevent these previously incarcerated individuals from landing back in jail, mechanisms instead make it almost impossible to obtain meaningful employment as well as finding a stable place to live. These individuals become less optimistic about the applications they fill out because they know the criminal history question will essentially invalidate their application despite being qualified for jobs. Finding a stable home once being released is just as hard as finding a job as landlords often discriminate against formerly incarcerated people because of the stigma of having a criminal as a tenant and the false sense of heightened violence because of the individuals’ criminal past.

Policymakers should push to extend the “Ban the Box” campaign on a national scale and in both the public and private sectors. California, New York, Washington D.C., among others, have implemented this campaign to aide the minority groups that concentrated within their cities and are most affected by this discrimination. However, more needs to be done. A nationwide policy to ban these questions from job applications will improve the lives of many people who need help reintegrating after incarceration. Companies should make sure they hire individuals that represent them in a positive way. However, they should make this assumption from in-person interviews and not from applications. Companies also have an incentive to hire these types of people because Federal Work Opportunity Tax Credit allows a company to claim a credit of up to $2,400 for hiring a formerly incarcerated person.

We also need to protect these individuals from the beginning of the application process to the end, not stop somewhere in between. Policymakers need to provide stricter regulation on what the definition of an “employer” is. An employer with 20 or more employees is subject to certain regulations to which smaller employers are not subject. An individual should be able to obtain a job because he or she has the necessary qualifications for it and not because of their past endeavors in life.

Making the Ban the Box campaign a nationwide effort will be a step in the right direction for ex-convicts seeking a second opportunity to improve their lives. These individuals should have an equal opportunity to obtain a job, proper housing, etc. in efforts to prevent these individuals from ending up back in prison. This campaign will help stop this never ending process and help these individuals to a more productive lifestyle.