Responsibility for an offense should lie with the person who commits it – not with an employer, unless the employer directly causes the conduct in question. Employers that conduct due diligence in hiring, should not have to worry about being made to pay for someone else’s conduct.
House Bill 665, filed Jan. 25, 2017 by state Rep. Tom Morrison, R-Palatine, combats Illinois’ nearly 50 percent rate of ex-offenders returning to prison within three years. Illinois ex-offenders who are employed a year after release can have a recidivism rate as low as 16 percent.
The change promotes re-employment and reduces recidivism by limiting the negligent-hiring liability an employer may face for hiring an employee with a nonviolent, non-sexual criminal conviction in his or her past. It limits lawsuits to cases in which an employer knew of the conviction, the charge was directly related to the nature of the employee’s work, and the conduct that gave rise to the alleged injury is the basis for the lawsuit.
Sign the petition today to tell your lawmaker to ease the transition to legal employment for individuals with nonviolent, non-sexual criminal records by protecting the compassionate employers who hire them.