The National H.I.R.E. Network supports state and local efforts to enhance the employment opportunities and outcomes of individuals with criminal records. The H.I.R.E. Network’s advocacy includes rigorous and timely analysis of state and local legislation and labor market dynamics that directly impact the employment prospects of job seekers with criminal histories. The H.I.R.E. Network also responds to requests for technical assistance from state and local advocates, legislators, and policymakers interested in alleviating barriers to employment faced by their constituents with criminal records, including the support of coalition building among and between government entities and community-based organizations.
The Network’s state advocacy priorities include:

• Promoting the sealing or expungement of arrests that did not lead to conviction or resulted in minor or no longer relevant convictions.
  
  
• Promoting anti-discrimination policies that require employers to make individualized determinations about a job applicant’s specific qualifications.
  
  
• Identifying and modifying or eliminating laws that categorically and/or inadvertently ban qualified people with criminal records from employment.
  
  
• Promoting, expanding and strengthening a range of federal, state, and local initiatives that have demonstrated success in increasing the employment opportunities available to people with criminal records.
  
  
• Educating employers who hire qualified men and women with criminal records about state and federal tax relief and subsidies as well as promote to increase the existence of such effective hiring incentives.
  
  
• Ensuring employers have access to relevant and accurate conviction information, but limiting the use of arrests that did not lead to conviction in employment decisions.
  
  
• Learning from state and local organizations in order to become more knowledgeable about and sensitive to local economic, social, and legal conditions that impact the labor market success of job seekers with criminal records.

The H.I.R.E. Network is committed to working closely with state and local advocates to identify public policy priorities; offer model legislation and practices; develop appropriate advocacy strategies to challenge state-specific employment barriers; and identify and unite local advocacy efforts of workforce development and criminal justice advocates to develop one comprehensive policy agenda. Our experience with state and local advocates have not only been beneficial to our partners in different jurisdictions, it has also greatly improved our capacity to advocate with an informed perspective on the federal level as well. Review policy priority links and find briefing summaries, model legislation, and what is happening around the country to make positive policy change!

For more information, please contact Roberta Meyers-Peeples at rampeeples@hirenetwork.org.