The Haunting of the Criminal Record in Employment

Costa Rica is a country many would consider paradise — and Costa Rica knows it. The country has everything one looks for in a perfect getaway location. It has a range of things to see and do that can be hard to decide, especially when it comes to a short vacation. Given that the “nation still protects 25% of its land [and] contains 5% of the world’s biodiversity” (Leisure Group Travel), the paradise remains intact and ready to offer the world new sights. Visitors can explore volcanoes, steep mountain hikes, ziplining adventures, and many other ecological experiences with the perfect tropical climate (Global Escapes). But, not only is it able to offer the vacation experience, it also has revolutionary laws set to offer, which the United States government can implement.

Costa Rica is one of the few countries in the world without a military; though it does an armed force, they have limited capacities whose primary roles are of public safety and internal security (Kindersley 2004). Without armed forces, less money is spent on military personnel and weapons, allowing the government to allocate more funds to the country’s education and its rich environment. These reforms are also present within the criminal justice department — establishing Law 9361 in 2017. Costa Rica’s Law 9361 states: “El Registro Judicial cancelará los asientos de las personas sentenciadas luego del cumplimiento de la pena, atendiendo los…parámetros”¹ (RPG 2021). In other words, the federal court would erase the criminal record of the people who have committed a crime, as long as they served a sentence for their respective offenses. The sentence, of course, is determined by the severity of the crime. Eliminating criminal records introduces new possibilities for individuals, allowing them to have all the privileges of all citizens.

Incorporating similar laws in the United States would improve the lives of formerly incarcerated individuals post-incarceration. In the U.S. alone, there are more than 2 million individuals incarcerated. Ninety-five percent of incarcerated are predicted to be released, with approximately 500,000 individuals released in a single year (James 2015). Moreover, research has demonstrated that many of these individuals will re-enter the justice system (Slevin 2000). However, due to a tainted behavior, people are not allowed to vote, can be difficult to find a job, and even to enroll in a higher education (Manza & Uggen 2009). A high percentage of these crimes and injustices on the formerly incarcerated stem from “tough on crime” policies enacted during the 1980s and 1990s, whose objectives were to reduce crime rates across the nation. “However, the practice of mass incarceration during that period had little or no effect on official crime rates” (Davis 2003:12). Still, these policies have had a lasting effect, impacting “employment opportunities and earning potentials” (Pager 2003:939) — predictors of recidivism, the tendency to repeat the crimes committed.

Though there are movements to remove such questions and allow formerly incarcerated people to re-enter citizenship, such as “Ban The Box” the movement has only been piecemeal, meaning that it is a slow process in our nation — leaving some states out of the conversation. Ban The Box (BTB), for example, requests for employers to avoid asking questions regarding arrest history and eliminate questions of criminal history from their job applications (NAACP 2021), only asking such questions if they relate to the job position. If asked, though, the employee has to be honest and communicate this directly to the interviewer, which can still have a harmful effect and risk the possibility of not getting the job. If the United States had policies similar to Law 9361, the question would not present barriers to employees, improving many living conditions.

Nevertheless, the implications of Law 9361 in the United States can transform how the post-incarceration is handled and looked upon by American citizens. Introducing such law in our country would decrease recidivism, improve unemployment rates, and increase public safety as more individuals are part of citizenship and not just “partial citizens.” This is especially important for communities of color; for example, African-Americans make up 14% of the U.S. population, but 40% of the incarcerated population (NAACP 2021). Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) communities would all benefit from such a law as they make up large percentages of our prison and jails populations vis-à-vis, making up large percentages of unemployment (Ajilore 2020). Furthermore, just like in Costa Rica, it would not help the country by providing more jobs, but also in subsiding poverty — if talking in capitalistic terms.

If we had something similar to Costa Rican Law 9361, the United States could move past the marginalization of formerly incarcerated people and introduce new possibilities. No U.S. citizen should be excluded from rights that have been fought hard for over generations. No restrictions could create new possibilities for millions of Americans and improve the present conditions in our society. Moreover, just like Costa Rica, the U.S. could allocate more funds to our environment and education, bettering the lives of future generations.

1. Translation: “The Judicial Registry will cancel the records of the sentenced persons after serving the sentence, taking into account the…parameters.”

References

Ajilore, Olugbenga. 2020. “On the Persistence of the Black-White Unemployment Gap.” Washington, D.C.:Center for American Progress. Retrieved March 3, 2021. 

Global Escapes. 2019. “Find Your Paradise in Costa Rica.” Athens, GA: Global Escapes. Retrieved March 3, 2021. 

James, Nathan. 2015. “Offender Reentry: Correctional Statistics, Reintegration into the Community, and Recidivism.” Washington, D.C.:Congressional Research Service. Retrieved March 8, 2021. 

Kindersley, Dorling. 2004. “Costa Rica: Defense.” San Francisco, CA: Internet Archive. Retrieved March 1, 2021. 

Leisure Group Travel. 2012. “Costa Rica: An Introduction to Paradise.” Willowbrook, IL: Premier Travel Media. Retrieved March 3, 2021. 

Manza, Jeff and Christopher Uggen. 2006. Locked Out: Felon Disenfranchisement and American Democracy. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). 2021. “Ban the Box.” Baltimore, MD: NAACP. Retrieved February 19, 2021.  

Pager, Devah. 2003. “The Mark of a Criminal Record.” American Journal of Sociology 108(5): 937-975.

Pager, Devah, Bruce Western, and Naomi Sugie. 2009.  “Sequencing Disadvantage: Barriers to Employment Facing Young Black and White Men with Criminal Records.” Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science. 623(1):195–213.

Procuraduría General de la República de Costa Rica 2021. “Reform Law of the Registry and Judicial Archives – N° 9361.” Costa Rica, San José: Procuraduría General de la República de Costa Rica. Retrieved January 26, 2021.  

Slevin, Peter. 2000. “Life after Prison: Lack of Services Has High Price.” Washington Post, April 24. Retrieved February 20, 2021.