It’s not even the crime that counts sometimes. Or the time in prison. It’s that little box on an application that asks you to reveal if you have a criminal history.  Checking that box can mean the difference between failure and success.  On this edition, the nationwide movement to ‘ban-the-box’, and make criminal histories less of a stigma.

Thanks to The Omnia Foundation for partial funding for this program.

Featuring:

Marilyn Austin-Smith, formerly incarcerated, and member of All of Us or None; Michelle Natividad Rodriguez, National Employment Law Project Attorney; Mike Casey, Unite Here! Local 2 President; Mike Hannigan, Give Something Back company director; Donald Washington, Juan Filomeno, Shirley Hollis, formerly incarcerated; Lois Ahrens, Real Cost of Prisons Project prisoner advocate; Deval Patrick, Governor of Massachusetts; Aaron Tanaka, Boston Workers Alliance Executive Director; Michael Corwin. Private investigator; Julie Roberts, Northeastern University School of Law board of directors’ member

For More Information:

National Employment Law Project

http://www.nelp.org/

All of Us or None

http://www.allofusornone.org/

EPOCA: Ex-Prisoners and Prisoners Organizing for Community Advancement

http://exprisoners.org/

Real Cost of Prisons Project

http://realcostofprisons.org/

Boston Workers Alliance

http://bostonworkersalliance.org/

SF Human Rights Commission

http://www.sf-hrc.org/

Unite Here! Local 2

http://www.onedaylongersf.org/

Give Something Back Office Supplies

https://www.givesomethingback.com/

Drug Policy Alliance

http://www.drugpolicy.org/

Neighbor to Neighbor-Massachusetts

http://www.n2nma.org/

Mass Legal Services

http://www.masslegalservices.org/node/29099

Legal Services for Prisoners With Children

http://www.prisonerswithchildren.org/

Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick

http://www.mass.gov/governor/

Omnia Foundation

http://www.omniafoundation.org/

Articles, Reports:

‘Do Workers with Criminal Backgrounds Deserve a Second Chance?’- In These Times

http://www.inthesetimes.com/working/entry/7114/do_workers_with_criminal_backgrounds_deserve_a_second_chance/

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 “Too Little, Too Late,” by James Alan Fox

http://boston.com/community/blogs/crime_punishment/2010/05/cori_reform_-_too_little_too_l.html

ACLU CORI Reform chart

http://aclum.org/sites/all/files/legislative/cori_reform_explained.pdf

A Brief History of the Drug War – Drug Policy Alliance

http://www.drugpolicy.org/facts/new-solutions-drug-policy/brief-history-drug-war

Race, Prison and Poverty by Paul Street 

http://www.historyisaweapon.com/defcon1/streeracpripov.html

Ex-offenders and the Labor Market by John Schmitt and Kris Warner 

www.cepr.net/documents/publications/ex-offenders-2010-11.pdf

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