Why Obama administration wants colleges to admit more felons

The US Department of Education seeks to remove obstacles that can keep the 70 million Americans with criminal records from going to college.

|
(Victor Texcucano/The Daily Sentinel via AP)
Stephen F. Austin State University graduates file into their seats on the floor at William R. Johnson Coliseum in Nacogdoches, Texas, Aug. 15, 2015.

The U.S. Department of Education urged colleges and universities on Monday to remove obstacles that can keep the 70 million Americans with criminal records from seeking higher education.

The call coincided with the department's release of guidelines that encourage schools to look for alternatives to asking about criminal histories during admissions and to take a more overall view of applicants' applications.

The move is one way of giving people with criminal records a second chance at more productive lives, Education Secretary John King Jr said.

"The college admissions process shouldn't serve as a roadblock to opportunity, but should serve as a gateway to unlocking untapped potential of students," he said in a statement.

King made the announcement at the University of California, Los Angeles. The University of California system does not ask about criminal justice history in its admissions.

King's call comes as President Barack Obama is attempting to reform the criminal justice system before he leaves office in January. Despite falling crime rates, more than 2 million Americans are imprisoned, the statement said.

The Obama administration is also pushing to remove questions about criminal history from federal job applications, reports The Christian Science Monitor.

Also known as "ban the box," the rule would prohibit federal government from asking question about criminal history until later in the employment process, when there has been “a conditional offer of employment.”

The “ban the box” idea has been gaining momentum in the recent months, fueled by the concerns of criminal justice reformers who have long held that “the box” systematically discriminates against felons, denying them opportunities that would help them integrate back into the society. A February 2015 poll by The New York Times/CBS/Kaiser Family Foundation found the men with criminal records make up 34 percent of unemployed men between 25 to 54. And the most affected are African American and Latino men, the poll found.

“There are people who have gone through tough times, they’ve made mistakes, but with a little bit of help, they can get on the right path,” President Obama said last November, in announcing his executive action to ban the box. “And that’s what we have to invest in. That’s what we have to believe. That’s what we have to promote.”

The Department of Education resource guide calls for delaying the request for involvement in the criminal justice system until after an admission to the school is made.

It also urges informing potential students on how to respond to requests about a criminal history, and making questions about it more narrowly focused.

The Education Department report includes recommendations on how schools might consider campus safety and applicants' criminal histories without discouraging applications for admission.

King said that the schools should join the federal government, 23 states, more than 100 cities and counties and many businesses that have reconsidered how they use criminal justice records during hiring.

Some evidence indicates that inquiries about a criminal history may deter college applications, the statement said.

A 2015 study showed that two-thirds of people with felony convictions who started applications at the State University of New York system never finished the process, partly because of the requirements for detailing their convictions.

By contrast, the attrition rate for all applicants was 21 percent. (Editing by Alan Crosby)

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to Why Obama administration wants colleges to admit more felons
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Education/2016/0509/Why-Obama-administration-wants-colleges-to-admit-more-felons
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe