“I Don’t Like Welfare I Like to Work” … The Case of an Ex-Con Who Could Not Stay Employed

In my new online employment law course, I feature the incredibly sad and telling case of an immigrant from Haiti (a lawful asylee) who, as a teenager, rode in the backseat of a car in a staged accident to bilk insurers by claiming a phony injury (a co-conspirator intentionally hit the back of her car at low speed). Convicted of a federal felony, she was sentenced to 10 months of home detention and 5 years of probation. She was a single mother of four young children by the time her sentence was imposed, years after the fake accident.

During her lengthy probation, she applied to jobs as a home health care provider. When agencies did background checks, they found her conviction and fired her.

The woman pleaded with her probation officer for mercy from the judge who imposed the sentence on her: “[C]an’t you please talk to the judge about my situation, criminal record. If the judge can’t release my problem one day I’m going to find work somewhere. I’m good hardworking woman, I’m single parent, have 4 childrens. I don’t like welfare I like to work. I’m independence woman please explain to judge for me.”

In Doe v. U.S., 2015 WL 2452613 (E.D.N.Y. 2015), Judge John Gleeson expunged her conviction. He explained: 

“Doe is one of 65 million Americans who have a criminal record and suffer the adverse consequences that result from such a record. Her case highlights the need to take a fresh look at policies that shut people out from the social, economic, and educational opportunities they desperately need in order to reenter society successfully. The seemingly automatic refusals by judges to expunge convictions when the inability to find employment is the ‘only’ ground for the application have undervalued the critical role employment plays in re-entry. They are also increasingly out of step with public opinion. The so-called “ban the box” practice, in which job applications no longer ask the applicant whether he or she has been convicted of a crime, is becoming more prevalent. There is an increasing awareness that continuing to marginalize people like Doe does much more harm than good to our communities [emphasis added].”