Document Type
Report
Publication Date
2023
Publisher
U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
Language
en-US
Abstract
In June 2021, President Biden signed Executive Order 14035 to advance diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility in the Federal workforce. This order called for an evaluation and expansion of Federal employment opportunities for formerly incarcerated persons.
Before this executive order, in fiscal year (FY) 2020, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) formed a task force to identify vulnerable workers and determine ways to better serve them. The EEOC identified formerly incarcerated persons as one category of vulnerable workers due to the challenges they face in securing employment after their incarceration. In the FY 2017-2021 Strategic Enforcement Plan, the EEOC identified the use of background checks related to arrest and conviction records as among its national substantive area priorities because African Americans and Latinos are disproportionately incarcerated.
This report comes from the EEOC’s Reports and Evaluations Division at the Office of Federal Operations (OFO). It asks two related questions:
1) How likely are people with prior arrests or convictions to work in the Federal sector?
2) Could regulating the timing of background checks during the recruitment process (e.g., ban-the-box policies) protect those applicants with a prior arrest or conviction from discrimination?
Recommended Citation
Benjamin D. Pyle,
Second Chances Part I - Federal Employment for Workers with Past Arrests or Convictions
,
EEOC Federal Sector Report
(2023).
Available at:
https://scholarship.law.bu.edu/faculty_scholarship/4176
