Campaign Victory! Eugene Will "Think Outside the Box!"

Imagine getting out of prison with hopes of finding a good job that will sustain you and your family. Now imagine starting to fill out a job application and, before you can state any of your qualifications, being asked “Have you ever been convicted of a felony?” Regardless of your past work experience or education, that barrier will always shake your confidence and be the first piece of information a potential employer learns about you. For many of us, this doesn't take much imagination.

That’s about to change for the City of Eugene. PSJ and its allies announced Thursday that the city will take that question off of its job applications beginning July 2010. Instead, the city will ask the question on a supplemental questionnaire or at the appropriate time during each individual hiring process. This is a major victory for PSJ’s “Think Outside the Box” campaign—and for people transitioning out of prison across the country.

“The city can hire the most qualified applicants when they don’t exclude people unnecessarily,” says Patty Katz, director of PSJ’s Beyond Barriers Program.

This makes Eugene one of many counties and cities in the country—including Multnomah County and Boston, Minneapolis, and San Francisco to name a few—that have chosen to remove the question from city job applications.

Boston removed the question in 2004 and has seen dramatically positive changes in the quality of Boston’s workforce and the way the city treats re-entering individuals. “We have benefitted by hiring the best people for the jobs based on their skills and experience and by not disqualifying them due to preconceived notions,” says Bill Kessler, assistant director of the Office of Human Resources for the City of Boston. “We also allow people to return to being productive citizens after they've paid their dues in the criminal system. [It’s] better for them and better for everyone concerned.”

PSJ was just one of the organizations that worked tirelessly to show Eugene, and City Manager Jon Ruiz, the potential that lies in individuals working hard to find jobs and in a city that wants to give them every chance to be successful.

“When a person has been convicted of a crime and paid their legal penalty, we do not want to saddle them with a life sentence of being unable to find a decent job” says Paul Solomon, PSJ’s board president and Asst. Executive Director of Sponsors, Inc., a transitional housing program for formerly incarcerated people in Eugene.

“As people become self supporting” says Katz, “their chances increase to create healthier families, a more productive workforce, while creating a safer community for better public safety.”

Thanks to all those who helped make this campaign successful, and congratulations to those who now have a fair chance at employment in the City of Eugene!