When intern placement veteran Jacqueline Perkins begins counseling students at Florida A&M University about their prospects for getting well-paying, security-related jobs with the federal government, she confronts the 800-pound gorilla in the room—the question of whether a student has been convicted of or pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor.
As minor as a misdemeanor conviction or guilty plea appears at first (usually a small fine and no jail time), Perkins says it can live in government records forever, undermine the job prospects of otherwise stellar candidates and cause major damage to their long-term career aspirations.
“We are graduating a lot of students with a false sense of security,” says Perkins, internship director in FAMU’s Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice for more than a decade. Perkins, whose school places the most HBCU students in the Centralized Student Career Experience Program—a cooperative education program that prepares undergraduate students for Deputy U.S. Marshal positions—says too little is done to educate minority students about misdemeanors.
“We’re living in a time now when everything is competitive,” she says. “If an agency has to make a decision on a student who has some question on their background or one with a stellar background … why would they hire the one with questions? Character and integrity (are) most important.”
Convictions or pleading guilty to misdemeanors—a catch-all classification of usually minor crimes ranging from disorderly conduct; driving with open containers of alcoholic beverages; possession of small amounts of marijuana; making fake IDs; littering; vandalism; writing worthless checks; public drunkenness; stealing food or lesser needs or wants; unauthorized duplication of copyrighted material; simple assault (such as getting into a fight); and similar offenses—can eliminate job prospects from pursuing a wide range of opportunities after graduation.
The federal government may not hire people with misdemeanor records for myriad permanent jobs that are security related in the FBI, Secret Service, IRS and U.S. Marshals Service. In many states a misdemeanor record can bar a person from representing a client in court or working as a doctor or dentist, depending on the nature of the offense. The same is true for many school districts when a job involves dealing with children or money on a regular basis.
Meanwhile, private employers of all stripes ask job applicants whether they have been convicted of a crime, not always initially asking for an explanation. Nearly all employers do background checks on applicants, even on job seekers looking for internships.
