1. Defensible Decisions: Formalized Processes for Assessing Risk in Hiring Practices Megan C. Kurlychek, Shawn D, Bushway, Garima Siwach and Megan Denver University at Albany This research was supported by award 2012-MU-MU-0048 from the National Institute of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice. The opinions, findings, and conclusions expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Department of Justice.

2. Original Question: When is it safe to hire?

3. Problem? Suggests TIME only relevant factor regardless of nature of criminal career so all we can do is “WAIT”

4. Legal Context EEOC Guidelines require other factors such as relevance of offense to job duties in an “individualized” assessment of the individual Thus, a policy to NOT hire anyone with a record until 7 or 10 years after event may not meet legal requirements

5. What else might help assess risk? Number of offenses Type of offenses Severity of offenses Duties of job at hand and relevance of offenses Evidence of Rehabilitation

6. Our Current Project To examine how employers assess risk. To set this in the context of legal mandates and regulations. To determine if the current practice: 1. Allows for the hire of reasonable individuals 2. Makes a meaningful difference for those hired

7. Our Partners NYS Dept. of Health – Clearance decision and employment dates NYS Dept. of Criminal Justice Services – Full criminal history prior to decision; 3 years post FBI records NYS Dept. of Labor – UI employment data for 6 years (3 pre; 3 post) A special thank you to these agencies!

8. New York: Legal Context New York Law prohibits blanket bans Article 23 of the Corrections Law: – Time since last offense – Relation of offense to job duties – Age at offense – Severity of Offense (ADQ) – Evidence of Rehabilitation

9. Context of Our Study New York State Department of Health – Non-licensed direct access care workers in NY Home health care, nursing homes, long-term care – CHRCLU reviews up to 140,000 provisionally hired individuals a year—about 4-5% have a record – Use official records –state and national – Have defined automatic “hire” and automatic “denial” criteria – Discretionary pool reviewed by attorney

10. Sample Descriptives Employees Age range16-92 Median age37 % Black42% % White49% % Men15% Facilities Nursing homes34% LHCSA facilities65% Facilities in NYC56%

11. The DOH Process Person applies and is provisionally hired The person is fingerprinted and DOH’s CHRC division reviews the case The person receives a pending or final decision letter

12. No Conviction Hired 91% Open, not held in abeyance 1% Non-Denial A or B 3% DOH processes

13. Open, held in abeyanceTerminated 1% Final Non-Denial B : Hired Final Denial A or B: Terminated Pending 26.5% 73.5% 4% DOH processes

15. Impact of Clearance: Does is Matter for Employee? Our Approach: DiD models EXAMPLE

16. Any Employment: three years from decision

17. Health Care Employment: three years from decision

18. Income: Conditional on Being Hired

19. Implications Rules for considering type of offense and its relation to job can be applied consistently Such rules DO allow for the hire of a significant portion of individuals with criminal records The ability to gain employment makes a significant difference in employment and earnings outcomes for this population

20. Directions 1. Benchmark acceptable levels of risk 2. Closer examination of 10-year rule 3. Help DOH determine if there are better criteria to use in discretionary pool to reduce false positives and false negatives