There is hope for convicted felons who have been denied employment with the City of Cincinnati -- they may be able to apply for a job after all.
The rules and government operations committee held a meeting Tuesday to discuss the city's policy on hiring convicted felons.
It turns out the city does not have a blanket policy against hiring someone with a felony on their record as previously believed by city officials.
City Council member Laketa Cole had asked City Manager Milton Dohoney to review the city's policy on hiring a convicted felon. It was believed that the city administration had a blanket policy preventing them from hiring someone who had been convicted of a felony.
Dohoney announced the city does not have a specific policy barring ex-criminals from employment and that it's up to each department to decide who to hire.
Cole says the city had been asking the private sector to hire convicted felons.
"We ask them to turn their lives around and really be a part of this program and buy into this program of turning their lives around and we pat ourselves on the back because we have put our money into these programs. But in reality no matter what this report says the blanket policy that we have on not hiring convicted felons is setting them up for failure," Cole said.
Committee members say the next step is to send the issue back to city administration.
One thought is to design a program that a convicted felon must complete before they are hired.
Council member Cecil Thomas suggested the city administration work with the Ohio Justice & Policy Center to help devise a program.
Stephen JohnsonGrove, an attorney with Ohio Justice & Policy Center, says the city has good jobs that convicted felons should be able to apply for.
JohnsonGrove says many applicants deserve a second chance.
