On June 11, St. Louis County officials signed an executive order, effective immediately, that would "ban the box" and ensure that St. Louis County will no longer ask job applicants for criminal histories in their initial employment applications. Other jurisdictions in Missouri with ban-the-box laws include Jackson County, Columbia, and Kansas City.
"A parolee's failure to find full-time employment becomes, quite frankly, a serious public safety issue for every county resident," St. Louis County Executive Steve Stenger told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. "Without a decent job, ex-prisoners are far more likely to struggle with substance abuse. And they are far more likely to engage in criminal activity."
The executive order provides that "employment decisions will not be based on the criminal history of a job applicant unless demonstrably job-related and consistent with business necessity, or unless state or federal law prohibits hiring an applicant with certain convictions for a particular position."
Currently, more than 150 cities and counties nationwide as well as 32 states have passed ban-the-box legislation that delays questions about criminal records of job applicants until later in the hiring process. Eleven of those states have required the removal of criminal history questions from job applications for private employers.
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