Collateral sanctions: Florida's laws and policies impacting employment
opportunities of ex-offenders
The following passage is the introduction to "Collateral Sanctions: Florida’s
Laws and Policies Impacting Employment Opportunities of Ex-Offenders:"
Governor Bush, in his Executive Order creating his Ex-Offender Task
Force, said “the ability of ex-offenders to obtain employment after incarceration and become productive members of their
communities is essential to reducing recidivism rates.” And he charged the Task Force with identifying “legal,
policy, structural, organizational, and practical barriers to successful reentry,” with the goal of eliminating such
barriers.
This memo begins the process of identifying employment barriers.
Since there has been talk of the Governor and Task Force working with the private sector, responding to their concerns about
hiring ex-offenders and persuading the business community to consider, where reasonable and feasible, opening their doors
to people with criminal records, it seemed that the place to start this inquiry was to look at the hiring laws and policies
of the state.
Florida employs tens of thousands of people, and the state regulates
and licenses many other jobs. Its own policies and practices can set an example for the private sector.
If the state closes off job opportunities and provides no mechanism
for case by case review, or for a realistic means by which rehabilitation can be shown and disqualifications from employment
lifted, then it is hard for the state to argue to the private sector that it should be more forgiving toward people coming
out of prison.
On the other hand, to the extent that the state opens doors of opportunity
and rescinds restrictions that foreclose opportunity, it sends a signal to the private sector that the state is serious about
giving ex-offenders a second chance. And it is walking the walk that it wants the private sector to walk.
The report extensively reviews Florida's Constitutional and Statuatory
Laws that impact ex-offender employment.
