Create an Enhanced Employability and Employment Protection Policy
Texas has over 100 state laws that forbid felons from obtaining jobs. Texas law also designates 1,941 individual offenses as felonies, which results in a huge felon population in Texas. In 2005 alone, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice released 64,512 felons from incarceration. These are people who must find jobs and housing or else risk turning to illegal activity to survive. But in addition to employment-prohibitive state laws, many parolees are released to society with few job skills, a low educational level, drug and alcohol problems, and a host of psychosocial adjustment issues – all of which lead to greater job instability and, on average, low income levels.[i]
A person’s contact with the criminal justice system also poses problems for potential employers: under the legal theory of negligent hiring, employers who know (or should have known) that an employee has a history of criminal activity may be liable for the employee’s criminal or tortuous acts.[i] In order for these potential employees to pay their debt to society by living responsible, productive, and law-abiding lives, they must be given the tools to succeed.
[i] Shawn D. Bushway. “Labor Market Effects of Permitting Employer Access to Criminal History Records.” Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice, Vol. 20, No. 3, 276-291 (2004)