Where I am, you really have to work hard to get sent to the pen – them folks is damaged goods.
If, given two otherwise equally qualified applicants, I would chose the one who had not been in the pen.
No reason to be prejudiced against the applicant who was not bent, and no reason to put myself or my business at risk.
Depends on what the conviction was for.
I have a man working for me who is a felon; three DUIs and evading arrest by leading cops on a chase. I’m friends with his mother and hired him when he got out of jail. The last conviction was 11 years ago, he didn’t complete whatever he had to do while on probation and was eventually picked up on a warrant for that and did 19 months.
He’s worked for me and a friend off and on for almost four years painting houses and doing handy-man stuff. He lives a few blocks from me and also has a key to my house, so if he’s around and I have to work a long day or something, he can let my dogs out.
Right now he is working a full-time temporary job (until winter, laying driveways and sidewalks) for someone else we know, making very good money. That guy also knows his record.
On the other hand - rape, violent crime, burglary…? Doubtful I would hire someone with a record like that. Unless it was, maybe, decades ago and he or she had been squeaky-clean and reformed since then.
I married one. Does that count?
An axe murderer?
Depends on the nature of the job I’m offering. To work in a law office? No. To mow my lawn or do handyman type stuff? Yeah, sure.
I didn’t hire him, but I used to work with a guy who was a convicted murderer. He had been an employee at our factory and killed some guy. He went to prison and did his time, which was exceptionally short because the state conceded that the guy he killed was also a really bad guy or something like that. So a few years later he’s back at work.
The thing is, people who knew him before said he was a really bad dude. He was about 6’2", 250 lbs with the skin tone and features that particularly scares white folks from the suburbs. Regardless of your race, if you saw this guy walking towards you at night your first reflex would be to cross the street or lock your car doors or whatever.
When I met him, Sonny had already “found Jesus” in prison, and was one of the sweetest, nicest guys that I worked with. I wouldn’t have thought twice about having him in my home. I’m generally not for religion, but it worked for him, and that’s one of the reasons I’m not fervently anti-religion.
So, to answer the OP, yes, I’d hire an ex-con felon, but I’d want to know a lot about them before I did.
Oh, just remembered that I worked with another ex-felon before, who had done time for distributing narcotics. He’s not into drugs anymore and I think whatever time he served scared him straight. He’s still a bit odd, but I’ve been to his house and vice versa.
Yeah, but the only people I’m capable of hiring now are, like, a guitar player for a one-nighter or so forth. I don’t care, as long as they show up, are as straight as I am (that means not high or drunk, not about banging whatever), and play good. I probably wouldn’t hang with them too much unless I liked them and didn’t seem all sociopath and stuff. Honestly, nobody would ever mention their past to me, except in casual conversation during a break or something, so it doesn’t come up.
Depends. I might, or I might not.
Um, no. Interesting user name / combo though.
No, just someone who got caught up as an accessory to her lame-ass husband. All is well now.