Four Cs

From the New York Times. Major U.S cities adopt new hiring policies removing unfair barriers to employment for people with criminal records. Click here to read the article.

From the New York Times, by Erik Eckholm. Black men in the United States face a far more dire situation than is portrayed by common employment and education statistics, a flurry of new scholarly studies warn, and it has worsened in recent years even as an economic boom and a welfare overhaul have brought gains to black women and other groups. It is noted in some research that high incarceration rates is one of the major factors that has curbed black employment in particular. Click here to read the article.

By Megan C. Kurlychek, Robert Brame, and Shawn D. Bushway. Findings from a birth cohort study to determine whether individuals whose last criminal record occurred many years ago exhibit a higher risk of acquiring future criminal records than individuals with no criminal record at all. The analysis indicated that after about 7 years, a criminal record provided little insight into the risk of new police contacts.

In most states felons who have served their time are permitted to vote. But a survey in New York shows that one-third of local election boards either don’t know the law or don’t follow it. How about where you live? Click here to find out.

Class action lawsuit filed by the ACLU in federal court in South Dakota, on behalf of three named plaintiffs who lost financial aid after misdemeanor drug convictions. According to the complaint in the action for injunctive and declaratory relief, the students represent 200,000 students with drug records who lost financial aid as a consequence of the 1998 law.

“Thousands of ex-prisoners are being denied the right to vote, according to a survey released Wednesday by two advocacy groups. Representatives at more than one-third of New York’s county election boards responded incorrectly to questions about the rights of probationers and people with felony convictions to vote.” Click here to read the article from Gannett News Service.

Thousands of ex-prisoners are being denied the right to vote, according to a survey released Wednesday by two advocacy groups. Click here to read the full story.