‘Ban the box’ jobs bill passes State Senate

This morning, Senator Rosalyn Dance’s (D-Petersburg) “ban the box” bill, SB 1171, passed the Virginia Senate on a 22-17 vote.

The bill proposes to “ban the box” – a measure to remove questions pertaining to criminal background from the initial job application form for those seeking public employment, giving applicants the opportunity to be evaluated based on their fitness for the job before revealing details of unrelated past convictions.

Said Senator Dance, “This is a jobs bill. It allows those who have found themselves on the wrong side of the law but who have paid their dues, who have acquired the skills, knowledge, and ability to gain employment, to do so. This increases their opportunity to get a job, and it moves them from being dependent to being independent and gets them back on the tax rolls.”

Said Senator Dave Marsden (D-Fairfax), “We need to make sure everybody is getting fair consideration, and that they are being evaluated based on what they can do, not on mistakes of the past that have nothing to do with the job in question. We need to get people back to work so that they can support themselves and their families.”