Cornell’s employment initiative aims to recontextualize criminal records

A new tool created by Cornell’s School of Industrial Labor Relations as part of its Criminal Justice and Employment Initiative aims to help people with criminal records find jobs.

According to a 2024 White House report, more than 60 percent of former inmates were still unemployed a year after their release.

Cornell is planning a pilot program for Restorative Records – an online tool that allows applicants with criminal records to provide context about their past and details about education, rehabilitation and good behavior.

Rather than highlighting only the negative elements of a person’s background, as is typical of criminal records databases, the new tool includes evidence of successful reentry into society – from positive community experiences and micro-credentials in additional education and skills training to mentorship , participation in substance abuse programs, health care services, and mental health services.

Representatives from Cornell Human Resources will describe the effort during a keynote podcast at 12:30 p.m. Nov. 4, featuring Jodi Anderson Jr., director of technology innovation for the Criminal Justice and Employment Initiative, who co-developed the tool with Timothy McNutt, director of CJEI .

“We are working to address the biases that exist in recruitment streams,” Anderson said in a statement. “The bias against formerly incarcerated people is not intentional,” he said. “I just think it’s built into the system.”

About the effort

The program initially launched in April 2022. April is also known as Second Chance Month, an initiative launched by the Biden administration that President Joe Biden said “represents a time to focus on prevention, reentry and social support rather than confinement”.

In addition to Cornell, CJEI received an Innovative Instruction Technology Grant from the State University of New York to bring the tool to the SUNY system.

Employees with a criminal record often perform better at work, are promoted more quickly and have fewer workplace incidents than employees without a criminal record, McNutt said.

“We want to provide tools to help people overcome that hurdle, but also so that employers can benefit from hiring this talented workforce,” he said in a statement.

Cornell HR has hired Thomas Jones, a formerly incarcerated individual, as a fair employment practices specialist to train hiring managers, support Cornell Prison Education Program alumni using the tool, and assist in implementing the tool at Cornell.

This article originally appeared in Ithaca Journal: Ithaca Cornell Restorative Records