Walker: State Should ​“Ban The Box”

On her way up to Hartford, Toni Walker ran into a homeless single father who claimed his criminal record prevents him from finding a job. Walker responded with a promise she plans to keep this week the first day of the new state legislative session.

Walker, a state representative from New Haven, intends on Wednesday to introduce a statewide version of New Haven’s ​“ban the box” law.

Walker encountered the homeless dad, Rick Goodjohn (pictured with her), last week at Christian Community Action’s family shelter on Sylvan Avenue.

She was there with two fellow New Haven state legislators, Gary Holder-Winfield and Martin Looney, for a breakfast with a half-dozen homeless and down-on-their luck people to hear their stories about trying to climb back.

Coincidentally, she’s already planning to introduce a proposal to help with the exact problem Goodjohn said he encountered: She wants the state to pass a ​“ban the box” law like New Haven’s to prevent job-seekers with criminal records from having doors slammed immediately in their faces.

“I became homeless as a result of suffering three heart attacks in 2008,” Goodjohn told Walker at the breakfast last Wednesday. ​“I am the single father of a 12-year-old who has been with me through everything.” He added that Christian Community Action was the only place that offered him and his son shelter.

Single homeless custodial fathers are rare, although another father and daughter made their way to the same shelter.

Goodjohn said he completed a training program through New Haven’s Employment Opportunities Commission but then couldn’t land a job. ​“I’ve been a thorn in their side,” calling often to see if staffers can find something for him. He said in the meantime he’s volunteering at his son’s school and becoming a parent advocate for improving education for all New Haven children.

It’s a common refrain in New Haven: The city has plenty of job training programs but not enough jobs, even from those programs that promise employment for graduates. Goodjohn joined a new CCA-spawned group that plans to survey people about their experiences with job training programs and share those results with legislators and making recommendations for improvement.

Goodjohn spoke as a member of the No More Crumbs Coalition, organized through CCA and Clifford Beers Guidance Clinic. The group is speaking to legislators, ​“advocating for funding for the safety net programs that keep people from slipping further into poverty and desperation,” according to Merryl Eaton, CCA’s advocacy director. 

Kim Clark (pictured) committed several larcenies in order to pay her rent and utilities. Her last conviction was in 1998, but her record has haunted her. Although she’s a certified nursing assistant with some college credits, her job prospects have been slim. ​“I was working a mediocre job because I am a convicted felon,” she told the legislators. ​“But that does not define who I am today — that’s who I was.” (Read about Clark’s story here.)

Both Goodjohn and Clark said they believe their lack of success in finding a job was tied to their criminal records. They said if they could land an interview, prospective employers would hear about their accomplishments despite the odds, and their fierce commitment to improving their children’s lives. Then employers might be willing to take a chance on them.

Goodjohn said he served four years in prison on a conspiracy charge. He said he was implicated in a drug operation being run by his God-brother and didn’t turn him in.

Reached by phone after the Wednesday morning meeting, Walker said she plans to introduce the legislation this coming Wednesday — the first day of the 2010 legislative session. And since it’s a short session, bills must be introduced through committees. Walker, who sits on the Judiciary Committee, said New Haven State Sens. Toni Harp and Martin Looney will co-sponsor, along with New Haven State Rep. Gary Holder-Winfield.

Judiciary Committee Co-Chairman Mike Lawlor hadn’t yet heard about Walker’s plans. He said he supports the legislation. But it faces a big obstacle, he said — a $6 billion two-year hole in the state budget.

“This year it’s going to be hard to do anything at the Capitol that’s not related to the budget,” Lawlor predicted.

But he added, ​“The big picture is reducing crime, and one thing we know is that ex-offenders are a lot less likely to re-offend if they have a job.”

“I want to get the whole delegation to sponsor,” she said, but she hadn’t had a chance yet to consult with other New Haven state legislators.

A statewide ​“Ban the Box” proposal would be modeled on an ordinance passed in New Haven last February. The New Haven law requires the city and any vendor doing business with the city to remove the box from job applications asking if the applicant is a convicted felon.

The idea behind the proposal is to avoid eliminating any potentially qualified candidates right off the bat. Employers can ask that question closer to the time a job may be proffered and may not use a candidate’s criminal record to eliminate him or her from consideration unless the crime committed is relevant to the position. For example, when asked how the city’s ordinance is working out, Prison Re-entry Coordinator Amy Meek said of the hundreds of vendors who have negotiated or re-negotiated contracts with the city, only two have asked for and been granted waivers; one was an armored car company. (The other was a multinational corporation of which only a segment of its business is with the city.)

State Sen. Looney (pictured) had another suggestion for Goodjohn and Clark: that ex-felons might want to apply for a pardon. He said the more time that’s elapsed since conviction (12 years, in Clark’s case), and the longer one had a chance to live a crime-free life, the better one’s chances for a pardon. That would erase the person’s felony record. So a job applicant could honestly say he or she has no record. It’s not an easy process. Eaton said when CCA held a pardon workshop, lots of people came, but only a few filled out the 35-page application.

Walker said at a legislative workshop last week presented by the Department of Correction, lawmakers were told the number of inmates released into the community (including those on parole, in halfway houses and on re-entry furloughs) has increased 23 percent over the previous year. ​“I asked if we have any increase in services,” she said, ​“and the answer was, ​‘We have a decrease in services.’”

When asked about the numbers, DOC spokesman Brian Garnett said in a phone interview that supervision of those individuals has increased. Regarding services, he said, ​“We reconfigured the budget to get the biggest bang for the buck,” despite a drop in funding.

The state discharged 11,703 end-of-sentence prisoners in 2009, according to Garnett.

Walker said many groups that deal with released inmates — including Community Action Agency, Mothers for Justice, Columbus House and Fellowship Place — have stressed the importance of the issue. ​“Our state is overwhelmed with people who have been incarcerated and cannot regain their families or get employment. We can no longer ignore it and we have to make long-term plans” for dealing with it.