LAC Commends Mayor’s Move to Lower Barriers to Reentry

NEW YORK, Aug. 4, 2011-- The Legal Action Center strongly commends and stands behind New York City's move to lower barriers to reentry for people with criminal records, part of a package of initiatives to aid young black and Latino men announced by Mayor Michael Bloomberg this morning.

Among the biggest changes is a move to "ban the box" from the city's job applications, as LAC and fellow advocates have long advocated. The new policy would advise city agencies not to ask about prior convictions on initial job applications. Other parts of the package would promote community-based alternatives to detention for youth, support efforts to help make rap sheets more accurate and encourage civic participation.

The ban-the-box and rap sheet policies, in particular, will give people with criminal records a more equitable chance at jobs, said LAC Vice President Anita Marton, who was invited to the mayor's announcement this morning. "Now they're not facing discrimination before they even interview," she said. "This, combined with the other changes, is a huge step forward that means more opportunities for people with criminal histories to reenter their communities and become productive members of society."

The report from the mayor's new Young Men's Initiative touched on similar points: "It is a cruel irony that the resources we know that make it more likely for a person to write his or her path," including access to jobs and housing, "are precisely the same resources that people with a criminal history have a harder time accessing," it said, concluding, "We must break the cycle."