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Since I've done this article, I was informed, by the companies that I had been applying to, that I was found to be ineligible to be hired. One, Windstar Bus Lines, Inc., in Carroll, Iowa, made it VERY CLEAR that my record, as I had presented it, would not affect my ability to be hired. Unfortunately, the company that they used, FIRST ADVANTAGE BACKGROUND CHECKING, a Symphony Technology Group Company (who I've found is used by more than one company that I applied to, where I am, in Sioux Falls, S.D.) was telling people that I was ineligible for hire, because I had 2 felony charges on my record. I do NOT, nor have I ever. I put in a dispute ticket (after contacting the company), along with proof that the charges that they said were felonies were NOT FELONIES, and was told that it could take as many as 30 DAYS TO STRAIGHTEN THIS OUT. YES, THAT'S 30 DAYS. In the meantime, I can't work, neither for them or the companies I applied to until they get that news. Windstar Bus Lines, the company I meant to get employment with, I've called over 3 times, each time leaving messages about this. No one there will contact me back.
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I'd like to begin by mentioning that I've done a very comprehensive article on this already. You can find it right here: http://themightyswordamericasdeadlysins.blogspot.com/2014/04/going-to-workif-youe-lucky.html
...and yes, this is, more or less, a rehash of that article, with a few major adjustments.
This article, by the by, is dedicated to nearly a quarter of today's blue collar work force, who has no choice but to clean toilets, work at Burger King, or do back-breaking construction work, because of a little problem we have today called "National Background Checks." If it stopped at employment, this wouldn't be so bad...but it doesn't. It now extends to living...PERIOD. You can't get this job or that job because of your record. You can't get this apartment or that house, because of your record. You can't breath the air of Canada, because you have a record. C'mon America...where does it end?
Here's one for you that I just learned about: Day labor...the last option for a lot of people with records, now requires that you have a background check for a good portion of jobs now! I couldn't believe it. They pay you squat to work anyway...and now you can't work a job because of your past? Unfreekenbelievable.
Worse yet, and probably most important here, is that when you go to jail for whatever stupid crime according to whatever ridiculous statute you may have broken, you aren't done paying. What? This is what jail is...supposedly. Paying your debt to society. Once you're out, you've paid...right? And what are jails for? Rehabilitation, allegedly. But, how does a person rehabilitate, if you're not allowed to forget what you've done and move on? How can you rehabilitate if you're given two choices...work a shit job for shit pay or go back to committing whatever crimes you previously committed because you have no other choice?
Black people have known about this little problem for a good many decades. We white people have started getting the picture because of National Background Checks. Thank you technology.
In the article referenced above, I mention someone that once shoplifted a candy bar. He gets caught, and is now given a charge of 5th Degree Theft. That theft now haunts that person...not only for the up to 30 days he might spend in jail because of it, but for as much as a LIFETIME. Yes, there are some jobs that will NEVER hire that person because he once stole a candy bar. Worse yet, some of these background checks go back as many as...get ready...25 YEARS. That person can never work for some of these places (that I know of, places like Radio Shack and Walgreens)...EVER, because of that theft charge...and because of places that offer these companies "National Background Screening." Use your heads people. Just because this 20 year old once stole a candy bar does not mean he's a career thief.
And, I'll say it again...upon getting turned down for employment over and over again, what is that one time thief going to do now? He can't work. Can't live. Might as well STEAL AGAIN. So what have these companies done? They haven't deterred theft. They've created career thieves.
The whole purpose of jail (originally, anyway) is to deter you from breaking the law again; but because of national background checking, the work force givers are now creating career criminals. We already know that jail is no longer about rehabilitation, it's about making money. Now technology and places that do national background checks are now making a killing off of this...and people that have good trade skills and degrees are being reduced to grunt work that no one wants to do because of it...or return to drug dealing on the corners of America. Or return to ripping off stores. Or return to committing deadly crimes because they have nothing better to do with their lives.
America, this one will be the death of this country. Abolish national background checks. There are damn good people out there that have made mistakes in their lives. They've paid for their crimes by doing the time. Let it end there. People CAN change. There are some people that DIDN'T DO IT, or that were talked into "Taking the Deal" so that they could get back to their families or their jobs faster. Don't make them pay their whole lives. They've paid enough already. Ban companies like "GoodHire" and "CheckR." These people are making a killing of employment background checking...and are ruining the lives of countless unemployables, because of it. Oh, if you don't...you'll pay. You just don't know it yet.
