These things can absolutely haunt people for years and decades. Pardons like this, and limits on how far back background checks go, are essential to ensure we aren't punishing people for eternity....
These things can absolutely haunt people for years and decades. Pardons like this, and limits on how far back background checks go, are essential to ensure we aren't punishing people for eternity.
I was recently offered my dream job and was really excited about it. As part of the hiring process, there was the typical drug screening and background check. I haven't used any type of drugs for 25 years, so I didn't think twice about it. I just thought of this as some boxes to check before I started my new job.
I was absolutely shocked when their HR department came back and informed me I failed the background check. A misdemeanor possession charge from 30 years prior had popped up. I had pleaded no contest, and adjudication was withheld on this charge.
I was a totally different person 30 years ago and made more than one mistake. Unfortunately, I had "burned" my one record sealing on a different charge from 30 years ago. Now, that misdemeanor marijuana possession charge had come back to haunt me.
Anyone who knows me now would have a hard time believing that me and that person from 30 years ago are one and the same. They would all be (and are) shocked when I tell them I have a charge on my record from 30 years ago.
We must stop punishing people for the sins of their long-ago past.
No, they did not hire me. As with most HR departments, they were policy and process driven and lacking the ability for a human to make a rational decision. Background check lists anything = Don't...
No, they did not hire me. As with most HR departments, they were policy and process driven and lacking the ability for a human to make a rational decision. Background check lists anything = Don't hire.
Without getting into too many specifics, the job was a director level job in my field and had responsibilities for one of my greatest strengths and passions.
BTW, another thing that really stung was that the state the company is headquartered in has a state law that limits how far back the background check looks. I reside in a neighboring state. If I had lived in the same state as the company is headquartered, they would never have seen something from 30 years ago.
I am sorry to hear that you didn't get the gig however I think in the near future you will be grateful that you didn't get the job. Jobs that require a 30 year look back, and get bounced because...
I am sorry to hear that you didn't get the gig however I think in the near future you will be grateful that you didn't get the job. Jobs that require a 30 year look back, and get bounced because of a misdemeanor of 30 years ago doesn't sound like a dream place to be in. Personally I have worked in places that have some very strict code of conduct etc., and they aren't the most fun places or people to be with. Their lost is your win.
The pardons will forgive low-level marijuana possession charges for an estimated 100,000 people in what the Democratic governor said is a step to heal decades of social and economic injustice that disproportionately harms Black and Brown people. Moore noted criminal records have been used to deny housing, employment and education, holding people and their families back long after their sentences have been served.
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The pardons, timed to coincide with Wednesday’s Juneteenth holiday, a day that has come to symbolize the end of slavery in the United States, come from a rising star in the Democratic Party and the lone Black governor of a U.S. state whose ascent is built on the promise to “leave no one behind.”
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Maryland’s pardon action rivals only Massachusetts, where the governor and an executive council together issued a blanket pardon in March expected to affect hundreds of thousands of people.
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Maryland is the only state in the D.C. region that has fully legalized cannabis sales, though both the District and Virginia have decriminalized possession and have gray markets for the drug. Virginia and D.C. have not issued mass pardons of cannabis convictions, according to the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, but Biden’s pardons had impact in D.C. because they applied to thousands of people arrested on federal land.
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Reducing the state’s mass incarceration disparity has been a chief goal of Moore, Brown and Maryland Public Defender Natasha Dartigue, who are all the first Black people to hold their offices in the state. Brown and Dartigue have launched a prosecutor-defender partnership to study the “the entire continuum of the criminal system,” from stops with law enforcement to reentry, trying to detect all junctures where discretion or bias could influence how justice is applied, and ultimately reform it.
Maryland officials said the pardons, which would also apply to people who are dead, will not result in releasing anyone from incarceration because none are imprisoned. Misdemeanor cannabis charges yield short sentences and prosecutions for misdemeanor criminal possession have stopped, as possessing small amounts of the drug is legal statewide.
Moore’s pardon action will automatically forgive every misdemeanor marijuana possession charge the Maryland judiciary could locate in the state’s electronic court records system, along with every misdemeanor paraphernalia charge tied to use or possession of marijuana. Maryland is the only state to pardon such paraphernalia charges, state officials said.
These things can absolutely haunt people for years and decades. Pardons like this, and limits on how far back background checks go, are essential to ensure we aren't punishing people for eternity.
I was recently offered my dream job and was really excited about it. As part of the hiring process, there was the typical drug screening and background check. I haven't used any type of drugs for 25 years, so I didn't think twice about it. I just thought of this as some boxes to check before I started my new job.
I was absolutely shocked when their HR department came back and informed me I failed the background check. A misdemeanor possession charge from 30 years prior had popped up. I had pleaded no contest, and adjudication was withheld on this charge.
I was a totally different person 30 years ago and made more than one mistake. Unfortunately, I had "burned" my one record sealing on a different charge from 30 years ago. Now, that misdemeanor marijuana possession charge had come back to haunt me.
Anyone who knows me now would have a hard time believing that me and that person from 30 years ago are one and the same. They would all be (and are) shocked when I tell them I have a charge on my record from 30 years ago.
We must stop punishing people for the sins of their long-ago past.
Did they still hire you? What was the job?
No, they did not hire me. As with most HR departments, they were policy and process driven and lacking the ability for a human to make a rational decision. Background check lists anything = Don't hire.
Without getting into too many specifics, the job was a director level job in my field and had responsibilities for one of my greatest strengths and passions.
BTW, another thing that really stung was that the state the company is headquartered in has a state law that limits how far back the background check looks. I reside in a neighboring state. If I had lived in the same state as the company is headquartered, they would never have seen something from 30 years ago.
I am sorry to hear that you didn't get the gig however I think in the near future you will be grateful that you didn't get the job. Jobs that require a 30 year look back, and get bounced because of a misdemeanor of 30 years ago doesn't sound like a dream place to be in. Personally I have worked in places that have some very strict code of conduct etc., and they aren't the most fun places or people to be with. Their lost is your win.
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