Monroe County can no longer ask people seeking a job in county government whether they have been convicted of a crime on their application under a new county law passed late Tuesday.
The law, known as the Monroe County Fair Chance Employment Act, is a local version of so-called “ban the box” regulations — rules that prohibit job applications from asking prospective employees to check a box indicating whether they have a criminal history.
Legislators approved the measure by a bipartisan vote of 20-9. Republicans accounted for all of the votes in opposition.
County Legislature President Sabrina LaMar, who championed the law, called its passage one of her “greatest legislative achievements” and said it would help diversify the county’s workforce.
“There are extreme structural disadvantages that Black and Latino applicants with criminal records face in the employment market,” LaMar said in a statement issued following the vote. “Ban the box policies help dismantle the structural discrimination faced by people with records.”
More than half of all states and roughly 150 cities have such laws on the books, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. The city of Rochester is among the municipalities that have enacted such legislation.
Monroe County’s version does not outright eliminate inquiring about criminal history during the hiring process, but bars the county from completing a criminal background check until after a conditional offer of employment has been made.
The law makes exceptions for positions in law enforcement, for which other laws require a background check prior to extending an offer.
Banning the box was among the recommendations of the county’s Commission on Racial and Structural Equity report published in 2021. The commission convened a year earlier and was tasked with addressing inequality across the county.
“Having stable employment is essential to reintegrating those who have been involved with the justice system back into society,” the report read. “However, these individuals often report believing that they are automatically excluded from most jobs (including Civil Service), or that employers will not even consider them, based on a past criminal record.”
