How do you erase past sins that are keeping you from getting a job?
You can try and have a criminal conviction or an arrest taken off your record, a process called expungement.
I’ve been reporting on how hard it is for ex-cons to find work, especially in this tough economy, and I came across a hot trend right now, expungement mania.
States and municipalities are reporting a record number of you trying to remove any trace of your run ins with the law. And what seems to be driving it is the crummy job market.
It’s harder than ever to land a gig, and hiring managers are keen to find any blemish in your past to disqualify you from the endless sea of applicants.
Desperate times call for desperate measures.
In Dayton, OH, there’s been a 54 percent jump in the number of people trying to expunge their records.
And in Florida, according to the St. Petersburg Times:
Judges statewide sealed and expunged more than 14,000 cases in the fiscal year ending June 30, a nearly 51 percent spike over the previous year. Hillsborough, Pinellas and Pasco counties each posted double-digit increases percentage-wise.
“People are having a really hard time finding jobs in general,” said Stephanie Pawuk, a criminal attorney in Trinity. “If they have anything at all on their record, in an already tough market it’s going to make it even worse for them.”
If you think expungement is for you, check out this site for some information on the basics. But the process differs by state so you’ll need to contact local jurisdictions where you committed a crime or ended up in court to find out how it works for your specific situation.
And keep in mind, even if you have your record expunged, there still may be information in cyber space about a past transgression. If you were arrested, or ended up in court, a newspaper article, blog post, or website may have mentioned it and that could come up if someone Googles your name.
That’s when you may want to consider erasing the web for negatives information about you, which may be harder to do than being granted an expungement. I did a story on this a while back.
Bottom line, even though there are laws in some states that are supposed to protect discrimination based on your past as it relates to crimes, employers rarely heed the law, experts say.
There’s definitely a school of thought out there that says, “why should someone with a record get the same chances as those who are law abiding?”
I wonder what hope we have if we never allow folks to leave their pasts behind.
What’s our take?
February 15th, 2010 at 2:14 pm
Delaware’s code on expungement is here: http://delcode.delaware.gov/title11/c043/sc07/index.shtml
Tough stuff, not pretty. You might be able to get charges expunged IF you weren’t guilty and WEREN’T charges initially with a sex crime or other legal folk devil. Even if the Gov. pardons you, you still can’t get a sex crime or DUI expunged. If you cop to a drug charge and go to a first offender program, you MIGHT be able to get an expungement after 2-5 years of completing treatment and probation. Which is the time when you most might NEED to get and keep a job.
February 15th, 2010 at 5:02 pm
Clearly, it can be close to impossible to get charges expunged in many states. It’s particularly disturbing when it involves something that happened when a person was under 21. A dumb move in your youth today can haunt you for decades to come.
February 26th, 2010 at 7:08 am
Whether we’ve done something serious enough to be convicted, or we’ve done something minor, I think taking responsibility for ourselves and our actions is vital. Saying to ourselves, “yes, I did that and I wish I hadn’t” and ‘”how can I do things differently from now on?” has a big impact on how we are seen in the World, whether we have a criminal record or not. Most of the time, the clients I work with feel ‘guilty’ about something. Guilt does not make a difference to what happened. Maybe part of us thinks that having guilt shows others that “we really are sorry” and that underneath we must be ‘a good person’, but all it does is keep us stuck in the past and stop us from taking responsibility for ourselves and our actions. If people think you can’t be trusted you may need to prove that you can be, but the reality is some people will never forgive and forget. Forgiving does not mean that the behavior is condoned but it does allow people to ‘move on’ with their lives and learn from their experiences. You cannot take back the past but you can be in the ‘now’ and shape your future differently. Forgive yourself, if you need to, and begin to trust yourself, when you do that other people are more likely to begin to trust you too.
Julie Mann Habitfixer
February 26th, 2010 at 9:09 am
You are so right Julie, we have to take responsibility for the things we did wrong in the past and take control of our futures. And we also have to try and be forgiving of others. Both can be hard but necessary.