Wednesday was a difficult day for The American Independent News Network, which is the larger entity that operates The Iowa Independent. Our chief executive and founder announced two of our sister sites would close and their content would be moved to The American Independent.
A recently introduced bill could have far-reaching impact on the U.S. sugar industry, including American Crystal Sugar, a farmer-owned cooperative that locked out 1,300 Midwest workers on Aug. 1.
The chairman for Herman Cain’s Iowa effort says the campaign “relied more on the word of farmers than Washington regulators” in deciding to run an ad containing claims the Environmental Protection Agency says are false.
The Iowa Senate will remain under the control of a slim 26-25 Democratic majority when it reconvenes in January 2012.
Iowa Workforce Development officials this week will learn more about a certificate program that helps ex-offenders in Illinois overcome employment obstacles.
Helping ex-offenders find and keep jobs reduces recidivism rates, advocates said, but many employers balk at hiring people with criminal records.
Reps. Ako Abdul-Samad and Wayne Ford, both Democrats from Des Moines, are co-sponsoring legislation this year that would create a certificate program in Iowa to remove employment barriers for ex-offenders.
Brenda Tart, a workforce advisor at Iowa Workforce Development, said Anthony Lowery of the Chicago-based Safer Foundation will discuss how a certificate program works there.
“So we can attack these barriers that this population is having,” she said during a community forum held last week at Des Moines’ North High School. “This isn’t just an isolated problem. This is a community problem.”
Illinois’ program is called a Certificate of Relief from Disabilities, which helps ex-offenders in their quest to obtain licenses in certain occupations, such as a barber or roofer, according to the Safer Foundation, which provides reentry programs. The application allows the ex-offender to provide evidence that he has improved his life. The certificate helps increase the chance that the applicant will obtain the license and helps them meet the “morals clause” required to obtain some licenses.
According to a 2004 report by the New York-based Legal Action Center, which studied the obstacles ex-offenders face when exiting prison, six states have certificate programs.
Iowa officials met with representatives from MidAmerican Energy, Rockwell Collins, Principal Financial Group and O’Reilly Auto Parts to discuss Iowa’s proposed certificate, which ex-offenders would use to certify their fitness to work, Tart said. Details of Iowa’s proposal are still being worked out, officials said.
Employers want to make sure that the ex-offenders being considered for employment are well-trained and ready to work, Tart said. They want to know the ex-offenders have “changed their ways,” she said.
“They didn’t care if they had a lot of misdemeanors,” she said. “They were more opposed to hiring somebody who had several misdemeanors than a violent offense because it showed no change in behavior.”
Marc Mauer, executive director of the Washington, D.C.-based Sentencing Project, touted the certificate programs during a joint Judiciary Committee at the State Capitol last week. Ford brought Mauer and another speaker to Iowa to discuss the state’s high incarceration rate of African-Americans. A Sentencing Project study last year placed Iowa first in the nation for imprisoning blacks at a rate that is 13.6 times that of whites. Iowa’s population is 2.5 percent black, but its prison population is 25 percent black.
Employers in Minneapolis, San Francisco and Boston aren’t allowed to ask about an applicant’s criminal record on initial job applications, Mauer said.
“It allows you to get your foot in the door,” he said.
Iowa employers can ask potential applicants about their arrest and criminal records, according to the Legal Action Center. For example, an online job application for the West Des Moines School district asked if an applicant is listed on the Iowa Department of Human Services’ Child Abuse Registry and Sex Offender Registry. It asked if the applicant had ever been convicted of or pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor or felony, including deferred sentences or judgments. It also stated that failure to provide the information may be considered fraud and a bar to employment.
Ex-offenders who spoke during community forums on the high black prison rate held in Des Moines last fall expressed frustration that despite improving their lives, old convictions were still hindering their efforts to find jobs.
After a person has been crime-free for seven years, his risk of committing a crime is the same as any other citizen, said Mauer, a national criminal justice expert.
“How long should a person’s record be used against them?” Mauer said.
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