A CA. LEGISLATIVE PROPOSAL THAT ACTUALLY MAKES SENSE

by Bob Walsh

Just like a blind squirrel finds a nut ever now and then the legislature of the formerly great state of California does, on occasion, make a proposal that actually makes sense.

A shitload of jobs in California require some sort of occupational license. Many of these jobs have training available thru the CA prison system. Sometimes the license agencies refuse to issue a necessary license just because the applicant is an ex-con. Sometimes they even refuse to license a person who has been arrested but never convicted.

This proposal (three different proposals actually) make sense. One of them would prohibit refusing a license to a non-violent offender whose most recent offense was more than five years old. (Unfortunately what CA considers to be a non-violent offense often doe snot line up with what a normal, reasonable human being would call a non-violent offense.) Statistically a former offender who manages to stay out of trouble for six years or more is only very slightly more likely to commit a criminal offense than is a member of the general public.

Some agencies already seem to be doing a good job. Since 2005 the State Contractor's Licensing Board has received 176,668 applications. Only 314 have been declines for criminal backgrounds.

One bill would affect persons applying for a license to operate child care centers or home health aide workers. That proposal is catching major opposition from from the Ca. Child Care Resources and Referral Network, asserting potential danger to rugrats.

The final proposal would allow former felons who completed and worked in the CA inmate firefighters programs to obtain an EMT or Firefighters certificate. This bill is also opposed, by the Emergency Medical Services Administrators Association and the Emergency Medical Directors Association, arguing possible public risk.

I am not sure I am 100% behind all of these, but they at least deserve a serious discussion.
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THE DEMOCRATS ARE RIGHT ABOUT JOB LICENSES FOR EX-CONS
California lawmakers want to make it easier for ex-cons to get job licenses

By Melody Gutierrez

San Francisco Chronicle
April 23, 2018

SACRAMENTO — California prison inmates are offered training in automotive repair, cosmetology, construction and other fields as part of their rehabilitation. Then, when they get out, state licensing boards often bar them from those professions because of their convictions.

Some Democratic lawmakers want to change that, saying that if California is truly interested in rehabilitating inmates, it needs to make it possible for them to get jobs.

“Everyone deserves a chance to make a living,” Assemblyman David Chiu, D-San Francisco, said Monday. “We can’t just say we want to rehabilitate people and then block them from the jobs they desperately need to turn their lives around.”

Chiu said California has made strides in removing barriers for ex-convicts, citing a ban on asking job applicants about their criminal history. Letting them into professions that require state licenses is the next step, he said.

Nearly 30 percent of jobs in California, encompassing almost 1,800 occupations, require some kind of license or certificate to practice. Those are granted by state oversight boards or agencies. Chiu said too many people with minor offenses are being turned away.

Jael Myrick of the East Bay Community Law Center said the group has helped people whose license applications were rejected simply because they had been arrested, without ever being convicted.

He pointed to data from the National Employment Law Project showing that after six years without a new conviction, a person is only marginally more likely to commit a new crime.

“So continuing to hold people back for crimes that are six, seven, eight, 10, 20 years old does not actually make sense,” Myrick said.

Chiu, Assemblyman Chris Holden, D-Pasadena (Los Angeles County), and Assemblywoman Eloise Gomez Reyes, D-Grand Terrace (San Bernardino County), announced three bills Monday that would bar licensing boards from using convictions for nonviolent offenses that are more than five years old to deny an application. The bills, which target different licensing boards, would still allow for denials based on violent offenses or in cases where the conviction was related to the profession for which an applicant is applying.

Chiu’s bill, AB2138, would create the new requirements in the Department of Consumer Affairs, which oversees licensing agencies for professions including auto repair, nursing and construction.

The bill is opposed by the Plumbing-Heating-Cooling Contractors Association of California and several other groups. They argue that the State Contractors Licensing Board, which oversees their industries’ licensing, has a strong record of approving applications. Only 314 applications have been denied because of criminal convictions since 2005 out of the 176,668 received, the contractors association said.

“The board has been judicious in how they have denied application,” said Deborah Maus, the contractors association’s executive vice president.

AB3039 by Holden would apply to the Department of Social Services, which licenses home care aides and certifies people who want to operate child care centers and residential care facilities for the elderly.

The California Child Care Resources and Referral Network said in a letter opposing Holden’s bill that the Department of Social Services should be able to look at past convictions, no matter how long ago, particularly in an industry where “a child’s well-being is at stake.”

AB2293 by Reyes would allow former inmates who completed the California Conservation Camp program to be eligible for firefighting and emergency medical technician licenses. Reyes said that when fires ravaged the state last year, thousands of inmates in the conservation program were on the front lines risking their lives.

“Once their sentences are complete, however, it’s nearly impossible for these individuals to gain employment as professional firefighters,” she said.

The Emergency Medical Services Administrators Association of California and the Emergency Medical Directors Association of California oppose the bill, arguing that it puts the public at risk.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Back in the ’60s when I was a California parole agent, I proposed to the Director of Corrections and the Governor’s office that the department offer barber and cosmetology licensing courses or the inmates that were cutting hair and those that were doing beauty shop work in the prisons. They thought it was a great idea ….. until my proposal was battered by a shitstorm of protests from the operators of the free world. barber and cosmetology schools. The motherfuckers objected on grounds that it would cause them to lose money.