Should employers be more felon friendly? | News

CASCADE TOWNSHIP, Mich. (WZZM) -- Jahuan McKinley has worked at Cascade Engineering for the past 18 months.  For 18 years before that, he was in prison, convicted of assault with intent to murder.

Many companies would not have hired him -- they would have had him check the box asking if he'd ever been convicted of a felony and immediately rejected him.

Cascade executives say they strive to be an Employer of Choice.   As such, they considers each candidate on their individual merits.   Applicants must disclose felonies, but it doesn't stop their job application like it would at many other employers.   It's a voluntary effort -- one it hopes other employers adopt.  

In Michigan, there's a movement afoot called the 'Fair Chance Coalition to Ban the Box.'   They hope the state will adopt a policy that removes criminal record disclosures on state employment application forms.

Miriam Aukerman of the American Civil Liberties Union is part of the coalition.   

"There are lots of people who need jobs," says Aukerman.  "This is a difficult economy but we can't afford to make having a prior criminal record a life sentence to unemployment. It's not fair and it's also not safe for our communities because we know employment is key to successful reentry."

Muskegon recently joined the cities of Detroit, Kalamazoo and Battle Creek in enacting its own Ban the Box policy.