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from the punishment-and-rehabilitation dept.
The Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania ruled that a state law (the Older Adults Protective Services Act) banning convicted criminals from getting full-time jobs in nursing homes violates due process rights and is unconstitutional:
The Commonwealth Court in Pennsylvania unanimously ruled Wednesday that a state law that prevents convicted criminals from getting full-time jobs in nursing homes or long-term care facilities is unconstitutional. By a vote of 7 to 0, the court found the law violates the due process rights of otherwise law-abiding people who may have run afoul of the justice system decades earlier. The court also concluded that a lifetime ban on employment for people convicted of crimes is not "substantially related" to the "stated objective" in the Older Adults Protective Services Act—to safeguard the elderly.
The ruling represents a victory for plaintiffs like Tyrone Peake, featured in an NPR story in April. Peake was arrested with a friend in 1981 for trying to steal a car. Peake never got behind the wheel, but he was convicted of attempted theft of an automobile and served three years of probation. The case became a black mark that prevented him from working full-time as a drug counselor for decades. "I've been fired from three jobs," Peake told NPR, "because [of] having a criminal record. And my record is like 32 years old, and I haven't been in trouble since then."
Advocates said the ruling would give fresh momentum to a nationwide movement to allow rehabilitated criminals more access to housing and employment in fast-growing sectors of the economy. Social science researchers say the risk of returning to crime declines as convicts age, and three years ago the Equal Opportunity Employment Commission warned that excluding job candidates because of criminal history can have a disparate racial impact. Aside from Peake, the other plaintiffs had convictions between 15 and 34 years ago for theft, drug possession, writing bad checks and assault and disorderly conduct. Since then, they had each maintained a clean criminal record. But advocates say the law on the books in Pennsylvania treated them the same as murderers and rapists.
More coverage at PennLive. Here's an editorial from a week ago written by a lawyer with Community Legal Services of Philadelphia.
(Score: 1) by Guppy on Friday January 01 2016, @06:03AM
The restriction was put in as part of a (misguided, I think) attempt to protect the elderly. They are an extremely vulnerable population, and occasionally you get bad apples who rob and cheat the disabled and demented. While most higher-level staff are better screened (and have more to lose, like a license for example), a lot of the bottom-tier health aides have minimal training and are basically treated like burger-flippers by the agencies that hire them - this even when the work is back-breaking, requiring the patience of a saint, and high tolerance for all sorts of smells and fluids.
In some markets with rock-bottom pay, I've even heard rumors that the more dishonest health aides consider looted spoils to be essentially part of the salary, making up for the poor pay and bad working conditions.