City College of San Francisco Changes Hiring Policy to Include Consideration of Applicants with Prior Drug Convictions

The new policy, prompted by local public interest organizations, brings hiring practices in line with state laws on rehabilitation
For Immediate Release: September 29, 2008

San Francisco — At the urging of three civil rights organizations, the Board of Trustees of the City College of San Francisco adopted a policy late last week establishing that job applicants with past drug-related criminal convictions will be given full consideration in the hiring process if they prove that they have been rehabilitated for at least five years. The change in policy is a shift away from City Colleges’ past practice of rejecting all applicants with drug convictions on their records. 

“This new policy will allow the College to draw on a wider, more diverse, pool of job applicants and to hire the most qualified people, including those who can show students that hard work and education can overcome youthful mistakes,” said Michael Risher, staff attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California (ACLU-NC). 

In a January 15, 2008, letter to then-Chancellor Philip R. Day, Jr., the ACLU of Northern California, the Women’s Employment Rights Clinic of Golden Gate University School of Law, and the All of Us or None project outlined concerns that the college’s blanket rejection of applicants violated the Education Code and the Due Process Clause of the California Constitution, and discriminated against poor people and people of color.

“City College serves the very communities in which people often face tremendous challenges and need second chances. This is an important step in opening up employment opportunities for people who have turned their lives around,” said Marci Seville, Director of the Women’s Employment Rights Clinic of Golden Gate University School of Law.

A key concern elaborated in the letter to former Chancellor Day - available at www.aclunc.org - was the discriminatory effect of the policy:

“Because poor people and people of color are more likely to have been sentenced to prison for drug offenses than are their richer, whiter counterparts, CCSF’s present policy will disproportionately bar them from community college positions. This is a disservice to rehabilitated people who would make excellent employees, as well as to the students who would benefit from a more diverse faculty and staff.” (page 5)

“The new policy opens up opportunities in our education system for the very people who are best qualified to help students avoid the pitfalls that could land them in prison,” said Linda Evans of All of Us or None, a project of Legal Services for Prisoners with Children, an organization that promotes opportunities for formerly incarcerated individuals.

The new policy establishes a Committee on Rehabilitation and states affirmatively that the Committee “shall recommend employment eligibility of an applicant if there is sufficient evidence of rehabilitation at least five years.” The policy sets out a number of ways that applicants may provide evidence of rehabilitation, including proof of completion of a professional treatment or counseling program; proof of community work, schooling or self-improvement efforts; and/or a letter from an employer or health professional with knowledge of the applicant’s rehabilitation efforts.

Similar policies are in place in other state agencies, including the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing and the California Department of Real Estate, and at agencies that grant professional licenses to nurses, psychologists, dentists, and opticians, among others.

Nearly 30 years ago, the California Supreme Court, in holding that a criminal record should not automatically disqualify a person from teaching our state’s youth, wrote that, “…the teacher who committed an indiscretion, paid the penalty, and now seeks to discourage his students from committing similar acts may well be a more effective supporter of legal and moral standards than the one who has never been found to violate those standards.”

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