By Brenda Flanagan
Correspondent
They do the crime and they do the time, but even after paying their debt to society, ex-offenders often find their criminal record still bars them from the most crucial lifeline back into society: they can’t get a job. Gary Meyer of Millville admits he sold drugs, but he served his sentence decades ago, graduated from Wharton and wants his record expunged. Basically, he wants a clean slate.
“I need my second chance. I’ve done everything right. Had to pay my way through The Wharton School — I was precluded from all loans and grants. I haven’t had any problems since 1992. I can’t get any professional licenses coming out of Wharton. So what are we doing here?” he said.
“The overall majority of prisoners in our system are non-violent offenders. For those folks, we need to provide an opportunity for them to reclaim their lives,” said Gov. Chris Christie.
And Christie today announced he’ll work with Sen. Sandra Cunningham to get an expungement bill through New Jersey’s Legislature. The governor signed Cunningham’s “Ban the Box” bill — preventing businesses from making job applicants check a box about their criminal history. An expungement provision would apply only to non-violent crimes, Cunningham said.
“I would see an automatic expungement if it’s been 10 years or more that you’ve had no legal issues,” she said.
“Now we have to find the right standard by which to institute expungement, but I absolutely believe that if we want to move to the next step in all this, that expungement has to be an option that’s available to those who’ve earned it and deserve it,” Christie said.
Christie addressed a special summit of business leaders, advocates and ex-convicts — designed to urge employers to hire people despite their criminal past. Koch Industries Vice President Mark Holden says they recruit former felons as part of a re-entry reform program.
“People with criminal records are among some of our best employees. It’s a great source of untapped genius and skills and talents. They just want a shot. They just want a chance, like anybody else,” Holden said.
Stefan Oberman agrees. He hires former inmates at Newark’s AeroFarms and says they make better workers.
“We have higher retention rates with past offenders than with conventional employees who don’t have a criminal record. We find that rather than a sense of entitlement to a job, we find that there’s a sense of gratefulness — that they need this job,” he said.
Sansone Auto Mall trains ex-offenders to be technicians. One hundred percent get a job.
“If I had to look at turnover of conventional employees and ex-offenders, the ex-offenders are way further ahead because once they get that job, they know that they have a shot,” said Rich Liebler, chief administrative officer at Sansone Auto Group.
Despite a growing national trend toward clearing criminal records, fewer than half of the states have general provisions for adult felony expungement. Christie wants New Jersey to pass a law by the end of June.
“So I think if I can come to an agreement with Sandy, I can probably get the votes we’re going to need to get it done,” Christie said.
Reforms pave the way, but advocates say that society and business owners need to change their perspective so that a criminal record doesn’t become a lifelong ball and chain.