FOR THOSE WHO'VE RUN AFOUL OF LAW

Think it's hard to find a job? Try checking the "yes" box on an application
that asks if you've ever been convicted of a felony.

In candor, human resource officers will admit that such applications move
quickly to the reject pile. Hiring is hard enough without messing with
people who've messed up criminally.

Job hunters with criminal records have a tough time returning to the work
force after they've served time. It's hard, too, if they're on
probation. Their records, which might show up in pre-employment background
checks even if they don't admit it on applications, are likely to keep them
from consideration.

Kansas City career counselor Evelyn Maddox knows this. She's been on the
hiring side of business and understands why it's safer to pass up a felon.

"I wanted to give them fair consideration but also be prudent," she
said. "But I didn't know how. I looked for training to screen job hunters
with convictions, but I couldn't find anything."

Her interest grew when she was the employment manager for a company that
hired a large number of people from rural communities near Kansas City. In
reviewing applications, she found a surprisingly large number of
convictions, many of them drug-related.

"Most were on probation, but several had been incarcerated," she said. "I
knew their future was bleak if they couldn't find a job. I also learned
they were very, very motivated to work and stay out of jail."

She encountered some unsavory characters, but mostly she met - ordinary
people of all ages - who'd made mistakes. The difficulty, she said, was
trying to figure out "if they really have a new value system or they'll
continue to operate out of the old one that got them in trouble."

Corporate attorneys advise against hiring felons because of potential
liability if something goes wrong. Background-checking companies get
business partly because of those fears. They're understandable.

But Maddox continued to seek some way to give convicted job applicants fair
consideration while being a prudent custodian of corporate and legal interests.

Her mission took her to the Topeka Correctional Facility, where she
counsels inmates about job searches and career planning.

"I tell them that the hardest point to overcome is getting the application
moved to the second round. Most won't ever get an interview. Some companies
have policies against hiring persons with convictions, though they'd never
state it publicly because that might make them subject to Equal Employment
Opportunity investigations in some cases."

To avoid the reject pile, Maddox tells inmates, they have to build an
advocacy network - just like job hunters on the outside.

"I tell them they have to use their time inside productively, building a
work record or a record of accomplishment, such as getting a GED, and then
they have to have people outside the facility who will speak as references."

Maddox is working with other advocates to develop mentoring networks that
will help provide those connections for job hunters with criminal records.

"Even though I have fear that I could link someone up and some harm would
come from it, I need to make progress in inches. I'm trying to help
offenders present themselves better," she said.