Saturday, October 8, 2011

A question of character: convictions for minor crimes can derail students' job prospects in a hyper competitive employment environment.

A question of character: convictions for minor crimes can derail students' job prospects in a hyper competitive employment environment. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] When intern placement veteran Jacqueline Perkins begins counselingstudents at Florida A&M University about their prospects for gettingwell-paying, security-related jobs with the federal government, sheconfronts the 800-pound gorilla in the room--the question of whether astudent has been convicted of or pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor. As minor as a misdemeanor conviction or guilty plea appears atfirst (usually a small fine and no jail time), she says, it can live ingovernment records forever, undermine the job prospects of otherwisestellar candidates and cause major damage to their long-term careeraspirations. "We are graduating a lot of students with a false sense ofsecurity," says Perkins, internship director in FAMU'sDepartment of Sociology Noun 1. department of sociology - the academic department responsible for teaching and research in sociologysociology departmentacademic department - a division of a school that is responsible for a given subject and Criminal Justice for more than a decade.Perkins, whose school places the most HBCU students in the CentralizedStudent Career Experience Program--a cooperative education Please note that Co-operative education can also refer to education about Co-operative societies. For this usage, please refer to Co-operative studies.The examples and perspective in this article or section may not represent a worldwide view program thatprepares undergraduate students for Deputy U.S. Marshal positions, saystoo little is done to educate minority students about misdemeanors. "We're living in a time now when everything iscompetitive," she says. "If an agency has to make a decisionon a student who has some question on their background or one with astellar background ... why would they hire the one with questions?Character and integrity (are) most important." Convictions or pleading guilty to misdemeanors--a catch-allclassification of usually minor crimes ranging from disorderly conduct disorderly conductConduct likely to lead to a disturbance of the public peace or that offends public decency. It has been held to include the use of obscene language in public, fighting in a public place, blocking public ways, and making threats. ;driving with open containers OpenContainers (aka OC) is an open C++ containers library, similar to the C++ Standard Template Library (aka the C++ STL or STL) or Boost library. OpenContainers addresses threading issues (see below) that the STL does not. of alcoholic beverages; possession of smallamounts of marijuana; making fake IDs; littering; vandalism; writingworthless checks; public drunkenness; stealing food or lesser needs orwants; unauthorized duplication of copyrighted material; simple assault(such as getting into a fight); and similar offenses--can eliminate jobprospects from pursuing a wide range of opportunities after graduation. The federal government may not hire people with misdemeanor recordsfor myriad permanent jobs that are security related in the FBI, SecretService, IRS An abbreviation for the Internal Revenue Service, a federal agency charged with the responsibility of administering and enforcing internal revenue laws. and U.S. Marshals Service. In many states a misdemeanorrecord can bar a person from representing a client in court or workingas a doctor or dentist, depending on the nature of the offense. The sameis true for many school districts when a job involves dealing withchildren or money on a regular basis. Meanwhile, private employers of all stripes ask job applicantswhether they have been convicted of a crime, not always initially askingfor an explanation. Nearly all employers do background checks onapplicants, even on job seekers looking for internships. "It is not fair," says former federal prosecutor David P.Baugh, a veteran criminal defense attorney in Richmond, Va., referringto how misdemeanor offenders are treated. "The child committingthat offense will be different in five or 10 years. I'm not the manI was when I was 18." It's not just the employment line that narrows when amisdemeanor conviction becomes part of a student or graduate'shistory. Applying to college and getting campus housing can becomecomplicated as a consequence of having committed a misdemeanor. At Delaware State University Delaware State University (DSU), the second-largest university in the state of Delaware, is a historically black university. Over the last 116 years, it has evolved into a fully accredited, comprehensive university with a main campus located in Dover, Delaware and two satellite , for example, it is standard procedureto ask all applicants for admission whether they have been convicted ofa crime. If the applicant answers yes, the school requires detailedexplanations of the offense. The application and explanation arereferred to the school's admissions conduct review board for closerscrutiny. "(The review board) will take it on a case-by-casebasis," says Delaware State spokesman Carlos Holmes. "(Thereview panel) could admit with stipulations or decide it (theconviction) is frivolous and dismiss it." He adds that morestringent rules apply in cases where existing students at the school areconvicted of committing a misdemeanor or worse offenses. "We keep talking to the kids about this," says Holmes,who noted the campus police chief joins other visible figures in talkingwith students about "what can happen if you are found in violationof the law." Still, Holmes says, one must remember the vastmajority of the school's students are under 21. "Many studentslisten. Some forget and some get caught up in the moment" of wildpartying that can lead to fighting, destruction of property anddisorderly conduct charges. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] In Houston, at Texas Southern University, all applicants foron-campus housing are subjected to background checks to determine ifthey have criminal records. If a person is denied housing, the school isnot authorized to disclose why. Again, as with regular admissionspolicies at most schools, housing applications that are flagged arereviewed on a "case-by-case" basis, says Mark Lambert,executive director of campus services and operations. Background checksare done each year a student requests housing, he says. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Cause for Concern Despite their widespread use by police to address any type ofmiscellaneous offense, there is little comprehensive national data onmisdemeanors or their impact on college-bound or enrolled students orgraduates seeking employment. One theme that seems consistent, however,is minorities are arrested on misdemeanor charges far more frequentlythan nonminorities. A 2007 study by the National Center for Juvenile Justice, theagency that analyzes government judicial data for the nation'sjuvenile courts, found Blacks were more than three times more likelythan Whites to be arrested on disorderly conduct charges. Blacks were2.9 times more likely than Whites to be arrested on charges of curfewand loitering law violations, the study revealed. Beyond those studies, data is scarce, say public and privateagencies that track the judicial system. "It's sort of the big unknown in the system," saysMarc Mauer, executive director of the Washington, D.C.-based SentencingProject, a nonprofit organization Nonprofit OrganizationAn association that is given tax-free status. Donations to a non-profit organization are often tax deductible as well.Notes:Examples of non-profit organizations are charities, hospitals and schools. that studies inequities in sentencinglaws. "In most states, employers can legally ask if you had anarrest, even if you have no conviction. One arrest can still have aripple effect ripple effectEpidemiology See Signal event. ." For example, several of those interviewed say it is hard todetermine how many applicants for federal student aid to pay for collegemay have abandoned their pursuits after reading Question 23 on the FAFSA FAFSA Free Application for Federal Student Aid (US Department of Education)(Free Application for Federal Student Aid) form, which asks in revisedlanguage on the 2010 application if the applicant has been convicted ofa drug crime while receiving federal student aid. Before this year, thequestion asked if the applicant had been convicted of a drug crime. While federal financial aid applicants (most minority students seekfederal financial aid to help pay for college) are asked to providedetails about the offense(s), a yes answer may have scared someotherwise good students from applying, some education officials say. Thesame is possible for students seeking internships or full-time jobs ingovernment and at private companies when the "character"question, as it is called, is asked. "Most of us have committed misdemeanors," says Robert L.Smith Robert L. Smith was a Republican politician from Idaho. Smith was the 1974 Republican nominee for the United States Senate seat in Idaho. He was defeated by Democratic incumbent Frank Church.PrecededbyGeorge V. Hansen Republican Party nominee, U.S. , a Nashville attorney and assistant professor of law at TennesseeState University Tennessee State University,at Nashville; coeducational; land-grant and state supported; est. 1912 as Tennessee Agriculture & Industrial State Normal School for Negroes; attained university status 1979. . "A traffic ticket is a misdemeanor." Smith worries that young Blacks and other minorities are not takingmisdemeanor charges as seriously as they should, with the likelihood ofsmall fines and little or no jail time giving those charged a falsesense of security. Smith also fears some employers in states such asTennessee, where labor laws allow employers to hire and fire "atwill" with no explanation, may use minor crimes like misdemeanoroffenses as a decoy DECOY. A pond used for the breeding and maintenance of water-fowl. 11 Mod. 74, 130; S. C. 3 Salk. 9; Holt, 14 11 East, 571. reason for refusing to hire a person because ofrace, economic class or some other factor. Smith says students should not take misdemeanor charges lightly.Some act as if a misdemeanor charge is a "rite of passage rite of passagen.A ritual or ceremony signifying an event in a person's life indicative of a transition from one stage to another, as from adolescence to adulthood. " andprize the notion of paying a small fine and not spending time in jail,he says. Others, unable to afford a lawyer, represent themselves andusually plead guilty to the charge, which usually involves only a smallfine and no jail time. Get a lawyer, Smith says, even if it is a publicdefender public defender,governmental official who represents indigent persons accused of crime. U.S. Supreme Court decisions expanding the right to counsel to pretrial proceedings and holding that a person cannot be sentenced to even one day in jail unless a lawyer was . [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] "You should never go (to court) by yourself," Smith says."You should never take this lightly. Kids don't know theconsequences of a plea either. It's permanent. A misdemeanor is nota death sentence. It's a mistake in life. There are some employmentareas where you can't have anything on your record." Creating a Diversion Smith and others say people facing misdemeanor charges haveoptions. "How many minority defendants are referred to diversionprograms?" asks Walter Searcy, chair of the Legal Redress Committeeof the Nashville Branch of the NAACP NAACPin full National Association for the Advancement of Colored PeopleOldest and largest U.S. civil rights organization. It was founded in 1909 to secure political, educational, social, and economic equality for African Americans; W.E.B. Du Bois and Ida B. . Searcy says all states have someform of diversion programs by which the final disposition of a case ispostponed for a fixed period of time so the person accused of theoffense can comply with the court's orders. They vary, depending upon the offense, but could includerestitution of funds or property, staying out of trouble during thepostponement period, community service or formal apologies. If thejudge's terms are met, the case is usually dismissed and any recordof the case is expunged from the public record. "If you don't have a lawyer and the district attorneydoesn't mention it or you don't raise (a diversion program),it never comes up," says Searcy, offering one reason why so manypeople of color Noun 1. people of color - a race with skin pigmentation different from the white race (especially Blacks)people of colour, colour, colorrace - people who are believed to belong to the same genetic stock; "some biologists doubt that there are important and poor people plead guilty or are found guilty. Outside court, in the employment arena, it's important to comeclean when asked about a previous arrest or conviction. "If you try to conceal it, that's where the problem comesin," says Perkins. "Someone is going to investigate." There is a growing chorus of people who feel HBCUs could do more toeducate students about the consequences of minor violations of the lawand how to handle them, if faced with charges. This can be done, theysay, while safely navigating the muddy Family Educational Rights andPrivacy Act The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974 (FERPA or the Buckley Amendment) is a United States federal law codified at 20 U.S.C.1232g, with implementing regulations in title 34, part 99 of the Code of Federal Regulations. , protecting the interest of the larger"squeaky-clean" college community and the legal liability ofthe institutions themselves. "I don't think (HBCUs) have acknowledged it to be anissue," says Smith. He says HBCUs should address issues likemisdemeanors and more serious offenses "because of the historicmission of HBCUs" and family histories of many students attendingthe institutions. Schools need to go beyond reading the riot act atfreshman orientation or sharing basic legal education inlaw-enforcement-related classes only. Given the financial squeeze many schools find themselves in,Perkins says educators should try simple methods that cost no additionalmoney, such as talking with students more often. "Help them understand there are lessons in life beyond abook," says Perkins, who suggests colleges educate students aboutlife after college, background checks, legal rights andresponsibilities. "That costs you five minutes. If it'ssomething you never mention to a person, it's something theydon't consider. I don't want to discourage anyone. I just wantto say you won't have as many choices."

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