The impact criminal history has on the employability of African American and Latino populations with disabilities receiving state vocational rehabilitation services: Implications for adding a criminal history variable to the RSA-911 data

Abstract

Abstract. BACKGROUND:Vocational Rehabilitation (VR) provides counseling, training, job placement, assistive technology and other support services to people with disabilities. VR counselors work to find employment consistent with their client's strengths, resources, priorities, concerns, abilities, capabilities, interests and informed choice. In order for VR counselors to be successful and effective in providing these services, it is important to know the client's full history. A great number of VR clients have criminal histories or have been adjudicated for crimes committed. According to the RSA-911 Technical Report, however criminal history is not a part of the VR national scope. OBJECTIVE: The following article discusses how the omission of criminal history has and will continue to have a significant impact on those clients in securing employment; and indirectly, affecting the success rate of VR. CONCLUSIONS: Suggestions for how to include criminal history are also included.

Disparities in Vocational Supports for Black Young Adults with Mental Health Conditions

“…15 Black ex-offenders with SMHCs often have difficulty obtaining employment because of common ways in which employers tend to screen for applicants with criminal history. 16 Current vocational rehabilitation practices inconsistently take criminal history into account when developing vocational plans, 17 which can have an especially negative impact on Black young adult clients with SMHCs.…”

Barriers to and facilitators of vocational development for Black young adults with serious mental illnesses.

“…Adolescents transitioning to adulthood with SMI are two to three times more likely to become involved in the criminal justice system than adolescents without SMI, and Black people are disproportionately represented within that group (Davis et al, 2009). Black ex-offenders with SMI often have difficulty in obtaining employment because of automatic criminal history job disqualifiers that have little to do with likely job performance, leading to increased rates of criminal recidivism (Dowden et al, 2016).…”