
Launch HN: 70MillionJobs (YC S17) – Job board for people with criminal records - RBBronson123
Edit: Thank you everyone for the incredible wealth of insightful suggestions. To anyone who wants to continue the conversation, I&#x27;d appreciate your pinging me at richard@70millionjobs.com with your continuing ideas, so we can stay in touch. Many challenges lie ahead for us, but your help will keep us on the right track.<p>Again, on behalf of all the folks with records trying to get on with their lives, and myself personally, thanks again for your incredible support. Richard<p>-------------------------------------<p>Hi HN,<p>My name is Richard Bronson and I&#x27;m the founder&#x2F;CEO of 70MillionJobs (<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.70millionjobs.com" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.70millionjobs.com</a>). Our website is the Internet&#x27;s first job board for 70 million Americans—1 in 3 adults—with criminal records.<p>I&#x27;m something of a domain expert in this area because I myself have a criminal record. In the early 1990s, I worked on Wall Street and some of what I did was illegal. For a time I was a partner at the infamous Wolf of Wall Street firm, Stratton Oakmont (Scorcese film). I ended up with a 2 year Federal prison sentence. I was guilty.<p>I experienced first hand how difficult it was to get on with life after going through the &quot;system.&quot; I served as Director at Defy Ventures, a great non-profit in the reentry space, but was interested in a scalable solution to ex-offender unemployment and resultant recidivism. I felt a new, for-profit, tech-based approach was necessary, so I launched 70MillionJobs. We&#x27;re seeking &quot;double bottom-line&quot; returns: make money and do social good.<p>Like most job boards, our business model is based upon employers paying to advertise their jobs. We expect additional revenue to come from municipalities, who spend tens of billions of dollars annually, when someone is rearrested.<p>You might not be surprised to learn that most formerly incarcerated men and women are petrified to discuss their background with prospective employers. So we created a &quot;safe haven&quot; where all parties knew the score, and applicants could relax knowing that jobs being offered were with companies that accepted their pasts.<p>Since many of our applicants don&#x27;t have a laptop or easy access to the Internet, we send out text alerts they can easily respond to. Because most of these folks have limited work experience and limited formal education, we plan on building a video resume platform to accompany their resumes. In person, many of these folks are respectful, bright and personable, so this will show them at their best.
======
newsreader
Former career criminal here. Spent 19 years of my adult life in a combination
of jail and prison. Longest stint was for 14 consecutive years. Been working
in IT for the last 17 years, mostly as a developer. Had a very hard time
getting my foot in the door; was denied employment more than once because of
my record. Not sure that my current employer is even aware that I have a
record, and to be honest I have no plans to reveal that part of my life. Also,
knowing that my criminal activities would have life-long consequences was
never a deterrent. One thing I know for sure: I’m not what I used to be. Today
I live a peaceful and productive life with my wife, enjoy the company of
family and friends, and try to stay up-to-date with technology.

I think that what you are doing is a good thing an applaud you for it.

~~~
austenallred
Don't you have to reveal that you're a felon by law?

I ask because we have a student in our CS academy who is in a very similar
situation.

~~~
newsreader
It probably depends by state. I was required to reveal I was a felon while on
parole. Once I was off parole I no longer had this requirement but... I was
constantly faced with the question on my job applications. My approach was
always not to lie and only answer the questions asked, adding "will discuss
during interview if needed". Twice I made it to the interview only to be
rejected after the nature of my crimes were revealed. On two separate
occasions I was offered employment, started work, and was later let go because
of my felony conviction.

~~~
felonthrow12345
Happened to me too. Went straight to probation though, no prison time. Still,
was given a job offer and worked for two weeks then the company asked everyone
to do a background check. I was out in two days after that.

Now almost a year into my current full time job. I've been very lucky and
fortunate but the threat of a background check will always look in the
distance :/ will keep my chin up though.

------
ictoan
Hi Richard, great idea. I'm a UX designer and want to throw out some
suggestions on how to improve the experience of the site.

First, use more cheerful/positive messages/visuals. It was a joykill when I
checked out your website and there's a sad guy placing his hand on the
forehead. Show what's possible. How successful people can be once they get a
job.. rather than their current state (unemployment). Don't focus on the
current stat, focus on the future desirable state.

Also, you need to put more focus on the jobs. List featured jobs to draw
people in. Just list some jobs below the search. This will engage the user to
explore the site.

~~~
RBBronson123
You are so right on all your comments. Soon we'll be re-doing the entire site.
Perhaps we can talk in several weeks?

~~~
iandanforth
I'd add that framing the hiring decision as charity ("giving someone a second
chance") could be improved. I'd go for more of a "diamond in the rough" angle.

"Find talent everyone else is missing."

~~~
RBBronson123
Thank you for this great message. It so simply expresses a very basic,
affirmative goal to which we aspire. With your permission, I will incorporate
it into our site's narrative.

~~~
iandanforth
Of course!

------
nulagrithom
I went through an IT technical degree at a community college. Three of my
classmates were timing their graduation to the year their felony fell off
background checks.

These guys spent 5 years grinding it out at whatever shit job would hire them
just to spend 2 more in school + working with the hope of getting a simple
rack & stack job, all because of some mistake they made in their late
teens/early twenties. It was the exact same story 3 times, and all involving
drug offenses.

It really gave me a different perspective on the situation. I don't think
these 3 people should've been sidelined for 7 years. They could've been
productive members of society well before that. Keeping them out of the
skilled/professional workforce is painful.

This could be a huge untapped pool of candidates, as long as companies are
willing to take the risk. I hope it takes off.

~~~
RBBronson123
Thank you for sharing that. It's a common story. Attitudes are changing
quickly, so I hold out hope. I very much appreciate your support.

~~~
brooklyn_ashey
It would be so great if attitudes were changing quickly in a positive
direction. In tech, it is still impossible to get your first job after a
career change as a woman, a person of color, or a person over say 35. Many of
these people fall into one or all three of these categories. In addition to
that, they have this ridiculous other hurdle to clear, and tech is still
trying to figure out if women can do any technical work at all. It is great
that people are making resources like this-- and for veterans, but I'm afraid
that without penalties or major financial advantages for companies supporting
"equality" and "diversity" it's gonna take longer than anyone actually has
before homelessness. i wish we could find a way to get financial
penalties/incentives for moral action to amplify the voices of the
marginalized in tech. Ideas? Any takers on a partnership toward this? I'm fed
up with companies not being held to account on this score. I may have to join
Rosie O'Donnel's womens' party, since it seems it may take that kind of
measure.

~~~
civilian
Tech is far less sexist and racist than you think it is. This article isn't
about tech specifically, but I think it does demonstrate that if anyone, there
is positive-sexism [ed: for women] happening when it comes to recruitment in
western workplaces. [http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-06-30/bilnd-recruitment-
tria...](http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-06-30/bilnd-recruitment-trial-to-
improve-gender-equality-failing-study/8664888)

Right now the demographic make up of companies don't match the population,
that's true, but these companies do tend to match the demographics of trained
programmers. The difference in demographics is from people choosing not to
enter tech. If you want to fix the problem, work on training pipelines into
tech.

The best way to summarize our different viewpoints is probably "Wanting
Equality of Opportunity vs. wanting Equality of Outcome". And-- you assume
that if the outcome of tech-demographics is different than the population,
then it must be due to racism/sexism. There are other cultural and socio-
economic factors that influence the demographics of tech.

~~~
abeisgreat
You're forgetting to account for people who would be starting out in tech then
find an environment that's impossible to work in so they leave the field.

These smart, awesome people never get to be "trained programmers" because
attitudes like this allow casual, often unintentional behaviors to ruin their
days.

Claiming this is a funnel problem is short sighted. We definitely need people
in the funnel, but we also need to ensure they have an amazing time as they
integrate into tech culture.

~~~
hueving
The computer science graduation stats are heavily skewed male. It happens way
before the company hiring and first job phase so taking punitive actions at
the hiring level is idiotic.

------
lbhnact
Just want to add support. One of my childhood friends has a felony from when
he was an overly-rambunctious teenager that he still gets punished for -
including being kicked off AirBnB - for something he stole more than 20 years
ago. Despite this, he's a very successful leader in mental health services
management.

So many people deserve a chance to redeem themselves from being 'branded', yet
are denied the exact opportunities that would allow them to do so. This
problem goes back a long, long ways.[1]

Anything you can do to help is great. Best of luck!

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Branded_Man](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Branded_Man)

~~~
xenadu02
Unfortunately some states (eg: Texas) don't allow you to expunge a felony no
matter how long ago it was. My sister-in-law's HS boyfriend was a criminal
jerk and she got caught up and charged as an accessory for something stupid
(theft IIRC). She fully admits she was rebelling by going after a bad-boy. She
had a public defender who met with her once and told her to take the deal to
get probation. Unfortunately the plea was for a felony.

It's been 20 years, she's married to a good guy and has a baby... yet that
black mark still comes up on her record.

~~~
jsmthrowaway
Arizona, too, and you’ll find that’s common in tough-on-crime red states. I
can petition to have mine “set aside,” but it sticks. I’m fortunate enough to
have a great career in the Valley, but it comes up all the time as the
upthread comment pointed out.

We are looking into gubernatorial pardon (Arizona has a decent process) but
not holding my breath.

~~~
ryandrake
This is a pretty common American attitude found in many "non red" states as
well: As soon as someone commits a crime--any crime and just once--they
_become_ a criminal. It's as if their species permanently changed from human
to something else. They're not a human that made a bad decision, they are an
"other". Since this new thing they have become is not human, all kinds of
inhumane and terrible things can be done to them and justified, including
permanent removal of rights, brutalization and rape in prison, permanent loss
of employability and access to normal livelihood. All of these things are seen
as OK because it's a _criminal_ we're talking about, not an actual person.

~~~
snuxoll
The US criminal justice system focuses on punishment and not reform, "the box"
on employment applications makes this patently obvious as does the removal of
voting rights for felons. All of this stems from exactly what you mentioned,
once convicted you are a criminal, that label follows you and there's little
you can do to get rid of it.

The first step to improving any of this is changing deeply held beliefs by our
society, and many days it feels like an impossible task.

------
iagooar
Love what you are doing. This is the kind of startup I love to see being
pushed forward.

With lower entry barriers for tech startups, one would expect to see more
startups that fight for a better world, instead of startups who fight for
selling your data faster, or detecting your face better to overlay a duckface
on top of it.

This is why seeing a startup like yours makes me hopeful.

Wish you best of luck!

~~~
RBBronson123
Thanks so much for your kind words! I appreciate it.

------
MentallyRetired
One of the first things I came across was "Police Officer" in Tallahassee, FL.
It's an external link. Part of the description even says:

"Have no convictions for any felony, perjury, false statement, or domestic
violence. No DUI convictions past ten years. Other arrest histories are
reviewed on a case-by-case basis."

I love the idea, but it needs a bit more work.

~~~
aeorgnoieang
What's the problem specifically with that listing?

~~~
QuotedForTruth
Its a listing that excludes candidates with felonies on a job board
specifically for candidates with felonies.

~~~
logfromblammo
The OP specifies only "criminal record", which may include both misdemeanors
and felonies, with varying degrees of each.

Some employers care about any criminal record at all, while others care about
felony convictions only. The website itself only mentions "criminal record"
and "formerly incarcerated".

Perhaps it would be prudent to make filtering easy for "misdemeanors only"
jobs and "former felons wanted" jobs?

~~~
drewmol
Many employers make a distinction between felony and misdemeanor convictions.
I encourage more dissection than that. Anecdote: I once stood in front of a
Judge who had recently gotten so drunk-->Then decided to drive-->he fell
asleep in the middle of a busy intersection (misdemeanor dismissed,
"improperly calibrated" portable BAC). I was represented by an attorney who
was on probation for a misdemeanor at the time of my sentencing(obstruction of
justice, helping facilitate the attempted payment of hush money to a rape
victim).

It made my 1.5Lb sale of marijuana (felony) not seem so harmful.

------
justin66
This presents an interesting dilemma here for an ex-con. Most people can
eventually get their records expunged after they're out for a while, at which
point we as a society demand that they start responding "no" to the questions
about having a criminal record during the interview process. It's dishonest
but it's how the legal system works.

If you're an ex-con who will eventually get his record expunged, is there any
risk to participating in a job board like this? I'm guessing it is pretty
small, and the advantages presented by the site will be worth it. Still, it's
ironic that eventually users will probably be in a position (after
expungement) where it is not in their interest to use the site anymore. I
wonder if, when this site is successful, it will eventually want to team up
with a more conventional job site to move some of those users over. Just a
thought.

~~~
gertef
What's dishonest (and what's demanded?) about honestly stating that one has no
criminal record (since the record was deleted)?

~~~
justin66
The question is sometimes phrased in a way that requires the applicant to lie.
"Have you ever been convicted of a crime," etc.

------
triangleman
In a past job I was responsible for hiring a few warehouse workers, and in one
case I was actually relieved to find that the applicant was on probation for a
drug charge, and was required to submit to weekly urine tests. Basically the
state was paying to guarantee that this worker was staying clean, and so I was
pretty confident about hiring him. I wonder if other employers would be
interested in that kind of info as well.

~~~
RBBronson123
Very interesting take on this

~~~
killjoywashere
Urinalysis as a service has got to be a thing already. Probably a partnership
deal. Maybe LabCorp or Quest. Just stay away from Theranos :) If not, we could
probably russle you up a chemist if you're willing to front the immunoassays
and mass spectrometer. Or microfluidics. Then Theranos might be interested...

------
hirsin
I think this is awesome, and I was relieved to see the focus on non-white
collar crime. Some questions that I think are systemic to the entire area -

The companies hiring are at somewhat of an advantage (they can hire anyone,
the employees have more limited options). How do you ensure they get a fair
offer, and not, like migrant labor, receive a below market offer? Would the
marketplace effect here help prevent that? (edit - looking at the website,
duh, it looks like you've solved this - awesome - and found good companies.)

Your revenue model is based on companies laying to get access to these
prospective employees - how do you get past the stigma (without breaching q1
above)?

I like the municipality revenue model - it would be awesome to see them as
"reverse recruiters" we're they pay every time someone gets a job.

~~~
tomjen3
>How do you ensure they get a fair offer, and not, like migrant labor, receive
a below market offer?

This will be legal employment, so hopefully the abuses resulting from migrant
employment won't happen, but the salary they are getting will be below the
"normal" market price, at least for a long time - and this is a good thing,
since they would otherwise not be hired at all.

~~~
RBBronson123
We can't ensure they get a fair offer, other than by providing information and
access to resources to address such injustices. I judge our success one job at
a time, and one repaired family at a time.

~~~
hirsin
Oof - unsolicited advice, but that combined with your acknowledgement of
racism in the system will have some people calling you the plantation market.
Even though you're not saying it explicitly, what I just read is that
implicitly your revenue model is based on giving companies access to a below
market cost labor force that's predominantly POC. While I lean towards the
idea that its better they have access to a job than not, I think it's also
vital to pursue full wages, rather than partial wages despite their debt to
society being paid.

~~~
RBBronson123
Not below market at all. There's great demand for this labor, and it's driving
wages up, if anything. The real effective response, I think, is providing
training for jobs that pay much more than minimum wage. That's something we're
working on, at scale. More on this at a later date.

------
rweba
I just randomly came across this very relevant TED talk given by a prison
inmate yesterday:

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F89eycANUrQ](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F89eycANUrQ)

I definitely feel that American prison policy leans way too far on the side of
moral judgement and retribution than rehabilitation. In my personal opinion,
anyone who has served their term has already paid for their mistakes and we,
as a society, should be more concerned with helping them get back on their
feet than with further punishing them for their mistakes.

I also think the practice of denying former felons the right to vote is
completely ridiculous. So if you commit a felony at 18, you can't vote even
when you're a 100? What kind of sense does that make?

~~~
losteverything
<So if you commit a felony at 18, you can't vote even when you're a 100?

I can tell you with 100% certainty that there are felons that vote. I believe
the system in our county is not perfect and thus mails out a voter
registration to a convicted murderer that served his time and is now free.

~~~
mobilefriendly
It also depends on the state.

~~~
sathackr
Florida has a process for felons convicted of certain crimes to have their
civil rights restored -- right to vote, own a gun, etc...

------
cletus
I'm super-excited to see this. I really hope it works out. Thanks for doing
it.

Honestly I find how this country treats those with a felony record absolutely
disgusting. The "Are you a convicted felon?" is a scarlet letter that never
seems to disappear. While this might've originally been well-intentioned, IMHO
it perpetuates criminality as I suspect what other choices do a lot of former
felons have?

There was (is?) a campaign in Massachussetts to retroactively pardon a felony
conviction for Mark Wahlberg. Apparently this makes it difficult to, say, get
liquor licenses and so forth.

Personally I"m 100% against a commutation for the rich and famous. What we
should be doing is freeing people from this stigma, particularly when the
crime was a long time ago, especially nonviolent and likely not relevant to
your job.

FYI Mark Wahlberg's felony conviction was violent and pretty egregious
actually as it was IIRC a racially-motivated attack on a Vietnamese man.

~~~
HillaryBriss
yeah, Wahlberg's crime is an interesting case -- the kind of violent crime
most people think merits a severe punishment. and yet, he's a wealthy movie
star today. American justice, folks.

oddly enough, it happened in Massachusetts of all places, a state i expect to
take this sort of hateful crime more seriously. maybe it would nowadays. that
particular violent attack happened a while back.

regarding licensing: the rumor i heard (for what it's worth) was that Wahlberg
recently wanted to become certified _as an actual officer on a local auxiliary
or reserve police force_ for some new show he was planning. but, as a
convicted felon, he is not eligible.

~~~
pchristensen
Boston. Ah Boston. For an entertaining account of some of Boston's history of
racial conflict, I recommend the 2-part Dollop podcast about the bussing
conflict:

[http://thedollop.libsyn.com/228-boston-
busing-1974](http://thedollop.libsyn.com/228-boston-busing-1974)

[http://thedollop.libsyn.com/229-boston-
busing-1975](http://thedollop.libsyn.com/229-boston-busing-1975)

It sounds more like a bad disaster movie than recent American history.

------
inetknght
> _So we created a "save haven" where all parties knew the score_

Does that mean that employers know _what_ offenses were committed, and how
long ago? Or does it just mean that they know that the candidate has been
convicted of _something_ , but figuring out whether that's a liability to the
business or not needs to be discussed?

~~~
RBBronson123
Aside from any legal/HR consideration, we feel that everyone deserves a second
chance, so we don't discriminate based upon the nature of the crime (but
believe me, this is not an easy issue to reconcile). Ultimately, it'll be
between the applicant and employer to resolve this. As it relates to liability
to the business, there's a federal bonding program that has existed for
decades, indemnifying employers from making at-risk hires. Interestingly, over
this period of time, only just a few claims have every been made. The facts
are that folks with jobs almost never recidivate. In fact, studies are now
showing that these folks, for certain jobs, actually may be better employees.
Hiring them is very good business.

~~~
chrissnell
My father owns a retail business that has four stores and employs a bunch of
hourly workers. After growing up around the business and working there in my
teens and twenties, I feel pretty confident that the risk of a second-chance
felon is probably no more than the risk of any average off-the-street hourly
worker. Bad apples show up all of the time. They steal a little money or some
inventory, get fired, and life goes on. The risk is far greater for an ex-con:
why would they risk going back to prison and losing a good job that gave them
a second chance over a little money in the register or some inventory?

~~~
RBBronson123
Your father's experience is no exception, and you're right. Generally
speaking, given the opportunity, these folks stay out of trouble.

------
hwoolery
I love the idea, and I really want your company to succeed. I don't really
consider myself very easily offended or PC, but I thought it seemed a little
stereotypical that the first two images in the hero were black people. I think
that should be changed as quickly as possible if you don't want to get any
backlash. My two cents : )

~~~
RBBronson123
I appreciate this observation, but our prisons are predominately filled with
people of color.

~~~
hwoolery
Really? From what I understand, the number of black inmates in prison is
roughly equal to the number of white inmates (about 40%/40%). There is a large
disparity in terms of the incarceration _rate_ of people of color, but your
above statement is not true.

~~~
arglebarnacle
Yeah, but "people of color" doesn't only refer to black people--the other 20%
are also people of color. So 60-40, and it's true that US prisons are
predominantly populated with people of color.

~~~
hwoolery
That seems like splitting hairs. Obviously I can do the math, and I'm not
saying there aren't _more_ people of color in prison, I'm saying that it's not
_just_ black people, as the website would have you believe.

------
javajosh
Hey Richard, love this idea. I firmly believe in the notion that once you've
paid your debt to society you should be able to participate in society as
anyone else would. That this is not the fact is atrocious to me.

Do you need a remote full-stack programmer?

~~~
maerF0x0
how is doing time "repaying a debt to society"? Seems to me incarceration is a
proving ground to show you're no longer dangerous, _then_ one can begin to
repay whatever injustices occurred?

~~~
leesalminen
That's not how it's framed in the US. Incarceration is purposefully made as
horrible as possible (rape, beatings, inedible food, solitary confinement) to
ensure full debt repayment prior to release.

I agree, it's disgusting, but that's the status quo.

~~~
maerF0x0
Also how is eye for an eye "repayment" . If someone steals my car I dont want
them raped-- I want my car back, plus a few bucks to cover the taxis I took
while it was gone.

------
Unbeliever69
Bravo.

The REAL problem, however, is the quality of jobs available to felons. If this
board is filled with nothing more than labor and call-center jobs then, you've
only solved part of the problem. The true goal is to connect felons with
sympathetic employers in ALL manner of jobs. There is nothing like a felony to
destroy a person's sense of self-worth and the system is completely rigged
against a felon. This is bigger than a technological problem. It is a problem
of humanity and forgiveness.

------
Fjolsvith
Richard, another thought I had:

There is a tax break for businesses that hire a new parolee. Something like
$4-5k tax credit for the first year of employment. Would be good to find out
about that and let employers know - help encourage them to hire criminals.

~~~
RBBronson123
Yeah, agreed, they're called WOTC's (Work Opportunity Tax Credits) and they
are significant tax benefits. Some municipalities will also kick in money
towards initial salaries, so there's compelling reasons to hire this
population.

------
Invictus0
Do you employ people with criminal records?

As an employer, I want to hire the best people so my company can be
successful. Why would I hire anyone from your site when there are plenty of
other candidates elsewhere?

Do you think people will try to use your site to disqualify potential hires
(i.e. use it as a do-not-hire list so those registered with the site can
specifically be avoided)? How will you prevent this from occurring?

Why would a company that doesn't care about criminal records advertise with
you? Wouldn't it make more sense for them to advertise on a generic job board,
take the best resumes, and sort out criminal history issues as they arise?

Does your site allow employers to see what a job seeker's crime was, or any
other info related to that that other job boards wouldn't provide?

~~~
someguy101010
"As an employer, I want to hire the best people so my company can be
successful. Why would I hire anyone from your site when there are plenty of
other candidates elsewhere?"

Not associated with that company but one reason to hire a convict is that you
get a pretty decent tax break[0] out of it

[0][https://www.doleta.gov/business/incentives/opptax/](https://www.doleta.gov/business/incentives/opptax/)

------
slice_of_life
> 1 in 3 adults—with criminal records

I must admit I haven't ever thought about these numbers but it strikes me as
insanely high. How can this be explained? Is it a feature of just America or
is it reproducible in other countries as well?

~~~
adventured
This is from 2002, but it makes the point:

"... that almost a third of men [in Britain] have a criminal conviction by the
age of 30, according to the Home Office. Research on men born in 1953 showed
that about 30 per cent had clocked up a standard list offence - one that is
dealt with by the courts but excludes minor motoring offences - by their
thirtieth birthday. Research in Scotland points in the same direction,
suggesting that about 25 per cent of men have a record by age 24."

[https://www.theguardian.com/money/2002/apr/14/workandcareers...](https://www.theguardian.com/money/2002/apr/14/workandcareers.observercashsection)

~~~
dsfyu404ed
Wow, and that was for people born in 1953(!!).

The net cast by law enforcement has not gotten smaller since then.

~~~
justadeveloper2
It's easier to rule over people who live in fear, so just make more things
illegal, process people through the system, and you get your total state
without anyone raising an eyebrow.

~~~
RonanTheGrey
Oh they raise eyebrows. The kind that come along with thunderous applause.

------
malandrew
With the immigration crackdowns by the Trump administration, we've seen more
and more stories about labor shortages in agricultural jobs often performed by
immigrants. The problem has reached the point where wages have been
increasing. Do those with criminal records consider these jobs? Why or why
not?

I would imagine that agricultural jobs would be low-risk for those types of
employers since those with criminal records are unlikely to be interacting
with customers or exposed to high value inventory. Both of which are
characteristics of a job that would give employers pause about hiring someone
with a criminal record.

~~~
vacri
Unskilled agricultural work is the lowest-of-the-low. In Georgia they cracked
down on using illegal immigrants, and it cost them their peach harvest,
because locals won't do that kind of hard-to-reach (rural), low-paying, short-
term/seasonal work.

A similar thing is happening here in my home state in Australia. The
government introduced a new tax on the backpackers that traditionally filled
out the fruit-picking workforce. The fruit-pickers cried foul about how the
government was now strangling them... but this story has a twist: the fruit-
pickers have been treating the backpackers like shit, withholding pay, for
enough years for word to get around that it was no longer worth doing.

In short, local residents don't want to do short-term seasonal work under poor
working conditions - unskilled agricultural jobs _really_ suck. Not to mention
that you're not going to draw city-dwellers out to the farm if they're poor
enough to be attracted to that kind of work - who is going to give up their
home for short-term work? Only those folks who don't have any roots put down;
that is, people who are already travellers of some kind.

Longer-term agricultural work can attract people more easily, since they'll
have an ongoing income and can put roots down.

------
ianbicking
I was curious about local jobs, so I put in "Minnesota" and get to
[https://www.70millionjobs.com/search/-/Minnesota](https://www.70millionjobs.com/search/-/Minnesota)
– but then when I put more search terms into keywords I keep getting the same
results (including keywords that I can tell have associated jobs). I'm
guessing it's falling back to ZipRecruiter entirely, but it's also not
searching those entries.

~~~
RBBronson123
Thanks for this question. We are not yet working in Minnesota (we're currently
focused on CA and NY Metropolitan area), so search results outside those
parameters are not good. We're working on it.

------
efdee
I very much like what you're doing for those of us who've made wrong choices
in the past. However, I am a little bit concerned what drives a company to go
to a site -especially made for those people- looking for future employees.

~~~
losteric
The hardest workers are people who are (re)building their lives from
nothing... Largely immigrants and ex-cons.

~~~
RBBronson123
In my experience, that's a very true observation

------
Fjolsvith
Richard, a suggestion:

Have a way for parole/probation officers to search for jobs nearby for their
charges. My PO was actually a helpful guy, as he figured if I was working, I
was more likely to stay out of trouble. Just have some way for them to engage
and provide assistance to new parolees.

~~~
RBBronson123
Another great suggestion. We have begun working with parole/probation offices
who frequently are incredibly passionate professionals committed to making a
difference. At some point we'll offer a white label platform for them to track
employment opportunities, employers, etc. Many still operate off of an excel
spread sheet.

------
KGIII
Are you _sure_ those jobs all hire felons?

I browsed my State and saw jobs for physicians, pharmacists, and even a school
psychiatrist.

~~~
Shivetya
was going to comment on this but will add on to yours. many states prohibit
felons and even some non felons but with criminal records from certain fields
that require occupational licensing.

do you have methods in place or planning to filter jobs with such restrictions
as not all states adhere to the same rules.

great idea btw

------
aantix
Just curious, how do you know that the job postings you're listing accept
those with criminal backgrounds?

Is this a list of curated companies? Or is there something that you're parsing
out that denotes this acceptability?

~~~
azernik
There may be several factors going into this; for example, in the Bay Area,
positions in the city of SF are prohibited from considering conviction history
that is not "directly related" to the job. It also suggests specific language
for including this information on job postings and corporate websites.

I would love to hear from company founders about what factors they use to
discover this information in their external job listings that are not on
jurisdictions like this.

Source: [http://www.millerlawgroup.com/publications/alerts/San-
Franci...](http://www.millerlawgroup.com/publications/alerts/San-Franciscos-
Fair-Chance-Ordinance.html)

------
brightball
A friend of mine finally had his record cleared of incidents from when he was
19-20. He took courses to learn to program but even now it's still hard for
him to get a job because people want to know about the huge gap in his
employment history from when nobody would hire him.

~~~
Mz
"Personal crisis."

I was a homemaker for a lot of years. I also happened to be too sick to hold
down a job during that time, but _homemaker_ sounds so much better on a
resume.

Find a preferably true and accurate description that is palatable to
employers. Then realize it is tough all over at the moment. LOTS of people are
having trouble getting hired at all.

~~~
wutbrodo
Do you mind if I ask if you're a woman? IIRC there's pretty substantial hiring
discrimination against men who claim to be homemakers (because it's less
common so people assume that they're lying). The other side of the coin
obviously being that women with kids are discriminated against in hiring due
to assumptions that they'll be distracted by their family obligations.

~~~
Mz
Yes, I am a woman. No need to ask: It is listed in my profile.

Also: I did not suggest a man call himself a _homemaker._ So, I am not sure
what the point of your comment is.

~~~
wutbrodo
> Also: I did not suggest a man call himself a homemaker. So, I am not sure
> what the point of your comment is.

Uh, I'm not sure where this hostility is coming from. Just because someone
responds to your comment doesn't mean they're disagreeing with you. I was just
adding the context for anyone who sees your comment and interprets it narrowly
as thinking that putting 'homemaker' on their resume gap is a useful way to
explain it away without understanding the pitfall for 50% of the workforce.

~~~
Mz
I don't see why you are calling that _hostility._ You could have made the
point you made here without implying I was suggesting that some man should go
with that framing.

I am quite open about my gender. Lots of people recognize that I am female.
Those that don't can easily determine my gender by clicking into my profile. I
have zero reason to believe people will interpret my remark to mean that _men_
should call themselves _homemakers._

------
jakozaur
Isn't yet another case that startup is trying to fix systematic screwup of law
in the USA?

In USA once you got criminal record, by default it stays for rest of life with
you. Implications of that may be even more severe than actual punishment.

On the other hand in most of the European countries criminal records are
limited and after X years they disappear and you can't legally discriminate
based on that.

Some ppl will do something stupid at some point in their life and get a
criminal record. Not giving them another chance is a major problem and
actually can cause a lot of damage for everyone.

~~~
jaredhansen
>Isn't yet another case that startup is trying to fix systematic screwup of
law in the USA?

Two thoughts:

1) "systematic screwup of law in the USA" is a pretty good description;
another might be "massive market opportunity"

2) "startup trying to [take advantage of market inefficiencies created by]
systematic screwup of law in the USA" is also a pretty good description of
drug traffickers of all kinds. (I'm not passing judgment; just making an
observation. The meta observation is that you can't cheat reality, so when law
gets out of whack the gap between Ideal and Actual creates an inefficiency,
which savvy entrepreneurs can profit by bridging).

~~~
Zyst
>systematic screwup of law in the USA" is a pretty good description; another
might be "massive market opportunity"

The way Americans have the capacity to acknowledge something intrinsically
fucked up about their society, and see it as a business opportunity regardless
is something I both admire, and despair over.

~~~
RonanTheGrey
Glad I'm not the only one that feels that way..

------
Iv
> our business model is based upon employers paying to advertise their jobs.

The only question I have is: why would they? I can see the reason why the job
seekers would subscribe to your website but I don't see why employers would
prefer it to other alternatives. Actually I can see one: to be able to
identify which candidates have a criminal record and eliminate them from their
pool.

Registering there as an employer can be an act of good will and generosity but
that seems a bit awkward to make them pay for it, no?

BTW, you have to have a very solid security from the beginning. A leak of your
database would not only threaten your business but negate most of the good you
did.

~~~
ascorbic
Because it expands the pool of applicants. It's a way of getting access to
people who otherwise might not apply (and who are probably willing to work for
less).

------
RBBronson123
I'm looking forward to hearing your feedback and am happy to answer any
questions about 70millionjobs, the challenges faced by people with criminal
records, and ideas you may have to improve our site.

------
blahman2
I gotta say, as fucking annoying as I find most of you people on other topics,
I am so thrilled to see your support for a cause such as this one. You almost
killed the cynic in me :) Go hackers!

~~~
RBBronson123
And as someone new to both HN and the tech culture in general, I'm stunned by
both the intelligence of the comments offered and the soul behind them. Doing
this work has definitely done my heart good.

------
glitcher
Testing out the Job Search functionality, there seems to be some room for
improvement for returning more relevant results first. Doing a quick test
against a keyword search for "developer", I would much rather see all results
with developer in the job title first. Instead seeing a lot of top results
that are not relevant, some which I can't find a form of the word "develop"
anywhere in the full job description, much less the job title.

Great concept and great start!

~~~
RBBronson123
Yeah, the job search functionality needs lots of work. Like pretty much all
job boards, we engage in scraping of other sites (along with our own jobs).
While we try to filter based on geography, job type and "second-chance
friendly," we get results that don't conform. Like you, I see all that needs
improvement, and promise to make it much better. Please make sure to check in
periodically and share what we can be doing better.

------
mattbgates
Hey, thanks for sharing this. I actually just wrote an article (not yet
published) for an organization that helps inmates learn how to code while in
prison so they can have some life skills for when they are done serving their
time and get out in the real world.

I'm not talking about murderers or pedophiles or people who just probably
don't belong in society at all, but when it comes to people with lesser crimes
-- people who got greedy, people who were stupid and stole something, or even
were involved with drugs (I'm an advocate for decriminalization), people who
can be given a second chance and not resort to a life of returning to old
habits.

The organization's URL is:
[https://thelastmile.org/](https://thelastmile.org/)

Another URL I came across:
[http://jobsthathirefelons.org/](http://jobsthathirefelons.org/)

Anyways, hope you don't mind, but I've added your URL to my article as well.
I'd rather see productive ex-cons/former felons contribute to our society and
not be relegated to a position at a minimum wage job for the rest of their
lives, despite having massive amounts of skills and talents that can be used
elsewhere.

~~~
RBBronson123
I don't mind at all, and I'm very familiar w/The Last Mile, and consider it
good company to be in.

------
TallGuyShort
>> We expect additional revenue to come from municipalities, who spend tens of
billions of dollars annually, when someone is rearrested.

I'm curious - while I agree that it also benefits the municipalities to help
former criminals reintegrate into productive society, through what channel do
you see expect this revenue to come? I know some tax breaks exist for hiring
ex-cons, but dishing out funds to a service like this would be entirely new,
right?

------
r0m4n0
I ran a search and a few banking jobs came up, one of which mentioned going
through a fingerprint background check. I find it hard to believe the US Bank
in SF would take me seriously for a teller opening if I had any sort of
hangups in my background.

I guess this is more of a feature request but... It would be great if you
could filter out job postings that were likely just scraped or aggregated from
other places!

Nice work btw, a great start for a much needed service

~~~
RBBronson123
Thanks for your kind words. Yeah, our search algorithm needs lots of work.
It'll get there.

------
darrenf
In the UK, Timpson[0] are a well known example of a national employer not only
willing to hire ex-offenders but one that does so proudly, and indeed offer
training to prisoners before they are even released. They have tried to
convince other companies to follow their lead but with limited success. That
said, we also have Clean Sheet[1] through which employers can expressly
publicise their willingness to employ ex-offenders.

I find it extremely admirable. Best of luck with your approach.

[0] See for example this archived blog post:
[https://web.archive.org/web/20150222003545/http://www.timpso...](https://web.archive.org/web/20150222003545/http://www.timpson.co.uk/blog/article/79/john-
timpson-we-are-making-a-difference-to-the-lives-of-ex-offenders-) or a search
for "Timpson ex-offenders" [https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=timpson+ex-
offenders](https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=timpson+ex-offenders)

[1] [http://cleansheet.org.uk/](http://cleansheet.org.uk/)

------
Scirra_Tom
1/3 adults with a criminal record in a developed country seems absolutely
insane to me.

Edit: Well I need to get off my horse because it seems to be similar here in
the UK as well:
[https://www.theguardian.com/money/2002/apr/14/workandcareers...](https://www.theguardian.com/money/2002/apr/14/workandcareers.observercashsection)

~~~
the_common_man
I was surprised by this statistic as well. If guess the prisons are very
large...

------
forgotmyoldpw
Um, why are all of the photos on the site of African Americans? Yes, it's true
that African Americans make up 40% of the prison population, but whites make
up 39% and hispanics 19%. It seems the images you have chosen are an unfair
stereotype.

~~~
jacalata
Some studies* have found that black men with a conviction experience
significantly more hiring discrimination than white men, so the pool of
"people with convictions struggling to get a job" is probably even more skewed
towards black people.

* random example form googling, but I've seen a few on the topic [https://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2015/04/03/race-crimin...](https://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2015/04/03/race-criminal-background-and-employment/)

------
coetry
The work that you are doing warms my heart and I wish you the best of growth
and prosperity.

------
dodgycrooks
Can you filter candididates by the type of crime they did?

I'd be fine with hiring people previously incarcerated for drugs offenses and
other minor crimes.

However, there's no way I'm hiring any rapists or pedophiles, or other such
scum.

------
yequalsx
I think this is an important endeavor. In the U.S. we tend to be too much
focused on punishment and retribution. No one benefits by preventing ex
convicts from an attempt at a normal life. I hope you succeed and wish you
well.

I do think you ought to remove the phrase, "...but despite having paid
everyone back..." That phrasing comes off to me as a bit of a justification
for what you did and seems to indicate a feeling that you should not have been
sentenced. I don't know if this is your intent or if indeed such a belief is
justified. It may be off putting to some.

~~~
RBBronson123
I think you're right, and it's probably my last ditch attempt to defend
myself. I need to omit that and move on. thanks

Edit: removed that bit as well as "I went on to build a large financial
services firm". Thanks for pointing this out.

------
quadcore
Business wise: what make a company want to hire someone with a criminal
record?

~~~
tapatio
They are cheaper?

------
jitix
Awesome idea! And a noble cause. But one word of advice - since this is a
niche market you guys should focus on natural growth and profitability instead
of getting too much VC money to fuel explosive growth.

~~~
adventist
I don't understand how 30% of Americans is a niche market? Can you elaborate
some more?

~~~
jitix
Its niche because the idea can be easily replicated by the incumbents in the
industry. And it will be hard to scale at a global scale because the
perception about ex-cons varies a lot in different countries.

As such the profits wont be able to keep up with VCs expectations if they
invest 100s of millions of dollars. OP has a great first mover advantage and
knowledge of the market, and they can capitalize that but the idea isn't worth
billions.

------
Co_Reentry
Richard,

Thanks for your effort in the reentry space! The struggle for returning
citizens is real and constant and I love seeing things like this on HN. At one
point I worked for a company apploi.com that had a similar business model but
targeting a different demographic. I would love to share some things I learned
from that experience. I also started a similar venture corestaffing.us that is
hyper-focused on the Baltimore/Washington area. Let me know if you are
interested in chatting!

~~~
RBBronson123
I am indeed. I'm at Richard@70MillionJobs.com

------
tomjen3
Will it be possible to limit job postings to groups of offenders? Eg only non-
violent offenders, only people who have been out for at least x years with no
new crimes, etc?

------
mikekij
Hey Richard, I'm really glad to see you working on this. A family member of
mine made some mistakes, and ended up spending time in prison. It's been
really painful to watch him struggle to get a job, even though he's paid his
debts and is a genuinely good person. I have tremendous sympathy for people in
this position.

If any of your members are experts at embedded systems / firmware /
cryptography, send them my way!

~~~
RBBronson123
ok, I will. Thx

------
riffraff
this is great stuff, I wish you success.

One minor suggestion: review the assets on your website, the second background
image[0] for example is 12 megabytes, you can probably compress it to much
smaller size.

[0]
[https://jobboardhq.blob.core.windows.net/assets/prod/2ttp/sh...](https://jobboardhq.blob.core.windows.net/assets/prod/2ttp/shutterstock_129614768.jpg)

~~~
RBBronson123
thanks for the suggestion

------
conanbatt
This is a great idea and I hope it does well.

From an economic standpoint, why IS it a problem? The lack of sense of safety
could come with a discount that eventually evens out. I.E. a felon gets an
offer with 30% discount, and after a year or so that he proves as normal as
any other get his wages back. Not feasible with minimum wage jobs, and one
could think this is really unfair, but its better than a straight no.

------
bduerst
Have you thought about collaborating with CEO works?

[https://ceoworks.org/](https://ceoworks.org/)

~~~
RBBronson123
We are currently doing just that, in NY and CA. Their NY director of Workforce
Development is on our Advisory Board.

------
bebopmoptop
Wow, this is great! I was convicted of a crime in my late teens and spent a
few years in the federal system because of my conviction. It was an
interesting process attempting to gain employment.

It warms to my heart to see jobs that are more open to people with previous
convictions - they're some of the most loyal and hardworking people I've
encountered.

Keep up the great work!

~~~
RBBronson123
I will keep up the work--I hope it approaches great. thanks

------
Powerofmene
Richard,

I think this is a terrific idea and can see the need. Do you foresee any
difficulties obtaining VC? Just a bit curious given the in depth background
checks they complete on founders. I hope that you get the funding that you may
need for growth because I think this meets a tremendous need.

Kudos to you for making the changes you have made and then using that to help
others.

~~~
RBBronson123
Thanks for your support. This space seems to resonate w/the VC community, all
things being equal. Ultimately, it falls upon me and my team to execute and
make it a business that's worthy of investment. Good intentions will not drive
their involvement, nor should it. The rubber meets the road if we can provide
a viable, sustainable HR solution. If we can't/don't, then we don't deserve
investment nor to remain in business. But my VC dealings thus far have been
very positive, starting with YC

~~~
Powerofmene
I am glad to hear that VCs are supportive and are showing that they can do
what you are trying to do, give someone a second chance. Again, kudos. I hope
your venture is a huge success.

------
mythrwy
What is the incentive for employers to use this site?

"Doing the right thing and second chances" doesn't count in this case because
it's rare when talking business and isn't dependable.

One possible incentive, (and this is a bit concerning), is employers looking
for people who can be paid less and abused more because they don't have many
options.

------
wolco
I can see this concept being a huge success because it is solving a real
problem. The difficult lift is the employer buyin.

------
danschumann
I'd definitely consider hiring ex-cons, as long as they had some sort of 'come
to Jesus' moment where they changed their life. I used to do a lot of bad
stuff, just didn't get caught for it ( mostly doing drugs ). I wouldn't want
to hire former me, but now that I've changed...

------
mathattack
_I went on to build a large financial services firm, but despite having paid
everyone back, I ended up with a 2 year Federal prison sentence._

Ummm.... This sounds like a huge rationalization. "I'm sorry for breaking in
and robbing your house. Despite giving the money back, I ended up going to
jail."

~~~
altstar
Read the next sentence:

 _I was guilty._

------
flanbiscuit
quick FYI, Your og:image is broken because I just tried sharing your site on
facebook and all I saw were logos from other companies. When I go directly to
the image you set in your og:image meta tag I get an error response

[https://jobboardhq.blob.core.windows.net/assets/prod/2ttp/lo...](https://jobboardhq.blob.core.windows.net/assets/prod/2ttp/logo_social.png)

here's a direct link to FB's open graph debugger with your site already loaded
into it:
[https://developers.facebook.com/tools/debug/sharing/?q=https...](https://developers.facebook.com/tools/debug/sharing/?q=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.70millionjobs.com%2F)

~~~
LeifCarrotson
Another broken page is your "For Formerly Incarcerated->Gain Certification"
page:

[https://www.70millionjobs.com/page/Certification](https://www.70millionjobs.com/page/Certification)

I see nothing but some share buttons, the standard header and footer, and a
blank white page. There's a Sumo login tab that slides out of the scroll bar
if you mouseover near the top right corner.

It's perhaps only caused by the Show HN DDOS/hug of death, but better to learn
now than later that the Sumo Listbuilder popup takes at least 30-60 seconds to
load. I only waited long enough to notice it because I had to disable UBlock
and reloaded watching the Network tab of the dev tools.

------
7cupsoftea
YES!!!! This is exactly the kind of innovation we need. Great work! Let us
know if we can help. We are at very beginning stages of supporting people that
are re-entering and getting folks lined up with jobs in a safe and supportive
way is a big part of that. Again, hats off!

~~~
RBBronson123
And right back at you for your efforts!

------
ghostbrainalpha
This is a beautiful project.

Have you met the guys behind [https://pigeon.ly/](https://pigeon.ly/)?

Are there any other problem areas related to the criminal justice system that
you are not addressing, that you think a startup could help with?

~~~
RBBronson123
Yes, I know them well

------
ztratar
Shot you guys an email, but would love to offer your users free months on
Boost ([https://getboost.io](https://getboost.io)). We're the only on-demand
career coach that's affordable for all.

------
eizo
Hi Richard,

This is a great idea with a nice social cause. Also,from a business
perspective this is a good niche and large scale. Aside the mission and the
targeted niche, how do you expect/plan to diferentiate in your product
offering?

~~~
RBBronson123
We need to find a much better product market fit. This job board was our first
pass at it, but we've learned lots and look forward to being far more engaging
for our users in the future. There's been so much great feedback here alone, I
can't wait to iterate.

------
clairity
i'm also working on the jobs problem (not in your niche however) and really
don't find the idea of another job board very compelling. can i ask why you
went that route?

in any case, best of luck! it's important work to be doing.

as a society, we should do everything possible to help people who make
mistakes and want to get back on the happy path. (as a side note, i think
punishment is way out of whack. we need more carrot and less stick for low-
level offenders, and more stick and less carrot for white-collar crimes that
affect many more lives, though it seems like you got a fair amount of stick in
your case.)

------
ahallock
It may be simplistic, but I believe if you've done the time, you should not
have a criminal record hanging over your head when trying to find employment.
For a third or fourth time offender, I may give pause, though.

------
kinnth
I don't come from the US but I also gained a record and it changed how I
viewed life and how I was viewed for opportunities. Punishment is the worst
way for people to move on. This is a great idea, well done.

------
tatotato
Goodness! This seems like an amazing opportunity - I have charges that will
never go away under New Zealand's Clean Slate Act for buying from Silk Road
when I was 17 years of age. This is truly progressive.

~~~
RBBronson123
thanks

------
artur_makly
for branding, i would consider not using a fixed # in the name - as that will
fluctuate. instead consider the spirit of the idea : perhaps
"SecondChances.io" or better.. keep up the good work!

------
distortednet
First time creating an account on HN. Wanted to to say what you're doing is
important. I will be sure word gets around about this in the appropriate
circles where it would be useful.

~~~
RBBronson123
Thanks for joining us here

------
tixocloud
This is a great initiative and hopefully will lead to a positive change for
everyone involved. Will you also be thinking about training/education
opportunities for applicants?

~~~
RBBronson123
That is something that has occupied more and more of my thoughts. thanks for
asking

~~~
tixocloud
Not a problem. I've always genuinely felt that all people are good people and
that when given a chance to integrate and succeed in society, they can make
it. Some are just less fortunate to not acquire skills that are needed for
jobs today but give them training and more importantly, give them confidence
in themselves that there is always hope and I am sure their lives can be
transformed.

I just read this story and thought it might be interesting for you:
[http://www.sgi.org/people-and-perspectives/changing-lives-
in...](http://www.sgi.org/people-and-perspectives/changing-lives-in-
prison.html)

------
renegadesensei
This is a fantastic effort. It is absolutely crucial that we do a better job
of helping those who have served their time have a chance to become productive
members of society.

~~~
RBBronson123
Thank you

------
markhall
Richard, amazing idea and appreciate the candor from your personal experience.
HN is a great community to spread the word of your launch, so thanks. Let me
know how I can help

~~~
RBBronson123
thanks, Mark. We need all the help we can get. What are you good at?

------
adventured
Great business concept and social good all in one.

With the unemployed persons per job opening at such a low present level
(~11-12 year low), I bet you see a lot of employer interest.

~~~
RBBronson123
There's great demand, exacerbated by our administration's crack-down on
illegal aliens

------
austenallred
I would imagine the difficult aspect of this two-sided market would be
employers.

Not to be obtuse, but what incentive would an employer have to hire someone
with criminal records?

~~~
someguy101010
I commented this somewhere else, but I figured I would drop this link here for
you too,
[https://www.doleta.gov/business/incentives/opptax/](https://www.doleta.gov/business/incentives/opptax/).
You can get a pretty decent tax break if you hire a felon.

~~~
RBBronson123
very true

------
kharms
>I felt a new, for-profit, tech-based approach was necessary, so I launched
70MillionJobs.

I understand why you preferred to make more money, but what made it necessary?

------
sharemywin
seems like a lot of what you'll need to do is on the employer education.
please excuse my ignorance, I hope their not offensive, I'm just trying to
help.

1\. is there any extra liability for the employer if they knowingly hire
someone formerly incarcerated and they commit a crime while working for them.

2\. aren't some kind of tax credits for hiring formerly incarcerated
incarcerated people.

3\. is it only w2 or do you allow 1099 opportunities.

~~~
RBBronson123
Actually, a federal bonding program has existed for decades, to indemnify
employers making "at-risk" hires. Interestingly, on a very few claims have
ever been filed. It's a myth that these folks will be criminals on the job. In
fact, studies out of Harvard and U of Mass suggest that they actually can make
better employees than those without records. There are indeed federal tax
credits (Work Opportunity Tax Credits) available. Generally, we're talking w2
jobs (which are also a requirement of parole/probation, generally)

~~~
sharemywin
Thanks for the clarifications.

\- It's a myth that these folks will be criminals on the job.

I wasn't trying to imply they were, I was more thinking of a company getting
dragged into a witch hunt. Regardless of the population there's always a bad
apple just like there's a diamond.

------
Nemant
Hi Richard,

What's your plan when the number of people with criminal records reaches 80
million, 90 million, etc? Have you already acquired the other domain names?

~~~
RBBronson123
Actually, I think the numbers will go down rather than up (our present
administration notwithstanding). About the only thing that Republicans and
Democrats can agree on is that the criminal justice system is seriously
broken. Longer sentences and more jails hasn't worked. The war on drugs? We
lost that long ago. So many lives wasted on mandatory minimum sentences
(eliminating all judicial discretion), drug arrests (many for a drug that's
being widely decriminalized). I have experienced positive changes in the 15
years since I was released. The cultural zeitgeist is evolving rapidly, for
the better. There's reason to be optimistic.

------
andrew_wc_brown
I love seeing startups who can actually transform lives. Its sad being a
developer with no technical limitations but have no useful ideas.

------
oliv__
I did a double take when I read the first 4 words: Richard Branson is in YC?
Launching a job platform?

Anyways, this is a great idea, I hope you succeed!

~~~
RBBronson123
What a big difference one letter can make. thanks for your thoughts.

~~~
stefek99
I read exactly the same.

Mind playing tricks on us.

And then... Wolf of Wolf Street.

I'll make an insider joke and update my LinkedIn profile for "Stratton Oakmont
Chief Compliance Officer"...

Good energy, much love!

------
Joeboy
Possibly interesting trivia: There was an '80s British TV series called Inside
Out, about people doing what you're doing.

~~~
RBBronson123
really? I love British TV!

~~~
Joeboy
It's
[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2674348/?ref_=fn_tt_tt_17](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2674348/?ref_=fn_tt_tt_17)
, although sadly it seems to have mostly vanished into the analogue void. I
remember it being pretty good, but I probably had dreadful taste at the time.

[http://www.rochellestevens.com/wp/wp-
content/uploads/2013/01...](http://www.rochellestevens.com/wp/wp-
content/uploads/2013/01/Credits-Moore.pdf) has a very slightly better summary
(at least enough to prove I'm not making it up).

------
RobertoG
I'm impressed by the "1 in 3 adults" thing. I should check the numbers for my
country.

Am I wrong or all that people can't vote?

------
losteverything
Is anyone elses reaction "What will they think of next?"

Anyone also surprised at the scope of positive and admission-comments?

Anyway, best of luck!!

~~~
RBBronson123
thank you. And yeah, the number and intelligence of the comments has been
incredibly gratifying. it does my heart real good.

------
felon123
How bout a separate site for individuals who are falsely accused of heinous
crimes(murder, rape) without evidence?

------
gressquel
There are pictures african-american people on frontpage, about and guiding
principles.

People MAY be offended. Just a suggestion.

~~~
naturalgradient
What do you mean? The reality is that African-American people are incarcerated
and convincted at very high rates, in great part thanks to policies that very
specifically designed to target them (re: war on drugs).

~~~
hwoolery
I don't think he's arguing the disparity of the rate, but rather the implied
generalization that former-convict = African-American. Look at the statistics
posted above, that is not true. I agree, it needs redesign.

------
felon123
How bout a separate site for those falsely accused of heinous crimes without
any evidence(like Brian banks)

------
deepnotderp
Just wanted to be another HN-er voicing my support for what you're doing :)

Good luck and i hope you're successful!

~~~
RBBronson123
thank you very much

------
Snarketing
Silicon Valley CMO with a record here - would love to offer pro bono marketing
help if needed.

~~~
RBBronson123
Please get in touch: richard@70millionjobs.com

------
nsxwolf
"Richard Bronson" is an awesome name for this. It has real gravitas.

~~~
mcjiggerlog
Strangely similar to Richard Branson!

~~~
nsxwolf
And Charles Bronson!

------
geff82
The good thing about people with a criminal record: you know what they did!
You will never know this of the people around you who got away not being
caught. Do I know if my neighbour did not rob a bank 10 years ago? No. So
working with ex-criminals can be an encounter with honesty.

~~~
greenshackle2
Uh, you don't know what the ex-con _hasn 't_ been caught for either. Maybe
they got away with murder 10 years ago, but where only caught for their petty
theft 5 years later.

~~~
jmcdiesel
Which also undermines the usefulness of judging based on criminal record...

~~~
aeorgnoieang
How is that? It seems reasonable to believe, all else being equal, that
someone that's been convicted of a crime has committed more crimes than
someone that hasn't been convicted.

~~~
jmcdiesel
Why? Being caught committing a crime is less a sign of committing a crime but
in doing it in a way that got you caught. Serial committers often go years
uncaught... from petty burglars to assaulters.. a lot of people get caught
their first time, its the ones who dont get caught that are more dangerous...

------
dalbasal
Important (and inglorious) work. I wish you the best Richard, genuinely.

~~~
RBBronson123
thanks for the encouragement!

------
always_learning
Minor things like small drug offences etc. fine but major crimes? No.

~~~
TallGuyShort
So are you of the opinion that people who commit major crimes should just be
unemployed for life, and no effort should be made to cater to their job
search? You don't realize that's a recipe for virtually guaranteed repeat
offenders?

~~~
RonanTheGrey
There will always be a segment of society that were bullied as kids and get
their rocks off being as cruel as possible to those they believe deserve it.

People like that are not part of this conversation.

~~~
rhencke
But, the comment you addressed is talking about people who commit major
crimes.

That is not the same group you are referring to.

~~~
jacalata
I believe he is referring to the person who posted that comment.

------
freeslugs
Can you sort by criminal record? e.g. Only white collar crimes.

~~~
RBBronson123
No, we believe everyone deserves a second chance. It's a challenging moral
quandary, I admit, but I for one am no one to pass judgement.

~~~
BearGoesChirp
What about cases such as people who commit crimes against children? Would at
the very least you say they don't deserve a second chance at working with
children?

------
Bakary
One in three adults have a criminal record in the US? Wow.

------
user5994461
How come 1 in 3 adults in the USA have a criminal record?

------
dvt
This is awesome, congratulations on your launch!

~~~
RBBronson123
thank you!

------
stoic
Bless you, sir.

~~~
RBBronson123
bless you, too

------
sigzero
That's nothing short of awesome.

------
adalyz
very interesting concept, all the best :-), hope it picks up, we need more
love in our society

~~~
RBBronson123
indeed we do! thanks

------
hgoldstein
A terrific long overdue idea

------
hgoldstein
Terrific idea. Long overdue

------
sghiassy
Love the idea. Good luck!

------
vogt
this is cool. you should get in touch with Pigeonly (YC W15).

~~~
RBBronson123
I'm very familiar with those folks, thanks.

------
pertymcpert
Best of luck!

~~~
RBBronson123
thanks very much

------
MentallyRetired
Love it

------
w8rbt
State and federal governments do not get as much tax revenue either because
these people are not earning at their full potential. So basically, it hurts
everyone involved as well as society as a whole.

~~~
pm90
So I have mixed feelings about this situation. On the one hand, if the
sentences were for drug possession, yes, I think its really shitty to
incarcerate people for that. But if their felony was due to burglary or
something more serious/violent, I do think they deserve the punishment.

I also agree that once the sentence has been served, people should not be
punished any further, except where the occupation requires a clean record.
e.g. I would be OK with pharmacies requiring no arrest for drugs etc. as a
condition for employment, or drivers without DWI convictions etc.

I guess my point is: its not a purely economic decision. Sure you're losing
tax revenue, but that's because you're:

1) Protecting society from a person who has demonstrates some lack of
understanding/acceptance of its rules.

2) Cause significant discomfort/pain to the perpetrator of the crime so that
they realize the consequences of breaking the law and hopefully never do it
again.

~~~
Mz
[https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-
checker/wp/2015/04/...](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-
checker/wp/2015/04/30/does-the-united-states-really-have-five-percent-of-
worlds-population-and-one-quarter-of-the-worlds-
prisoners/?utm_term=.1335c5e4202b)

The US has about 4.4 percent of the global population and about 22 percent of
the global prison population. So either we are seriously fucking up as a
country and incapable of producing decent human beings, or our entire justice
system is broken.

Something needs to be done differently at the systemic level that doesn't
involved holding every individual fucked over by the U.S. personally
accountable for being crushed under the wheels of the goddamn system.

~~~
dragonwriter
> The US has about 4.4 percent of the global population and about 22 percent
> of the global prison population. So either we are seriously fucking up as a
> country and incapable of producing decent human beings, or our entire
> justice system is broken.

Note that that's not an exclusive or; both can be true, and it's even
plausible that there's a positive feedback loop between the two—that is, we
have worse people _because_ of our massive imprisonment, and can't get
political support to end mass imprisonment because people _correctly_ fear the
near-term results given the way in which those in in prison are socialized
(and even often preferring more imprisonment from perfectly legitimate fears
of the way many people not in prison are socialized _due to_ our mass
imprisonment system.)

Which isn't to say we shouldn't bite the bullet and end the system, but just
that we'll have lots of near term problems when we do and lots of political
difficulty in actually doing it.

~~~
Mz
[https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/apr/03/identity-
the...](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/apr/03/identity-theft-racial-
justice)

 _The tickets had something else in common. Brownsville, the South Bronx, East
Harlem, Bed-Stuy (at least eight years ago, when the ticket was issued), all
of them are neighborhoods with large black or Hispanic, and very small white,
populations. It was then that it became clear to me: the reason for the
tickets wasn’t that these Lisa Davises were petty criminals._

If you are the wrong color and live in the wrong part of town, you get
criminalized for existing. Then when something does go really wrong, you can
be railroaded.

Derreck Hamilton* was a black kid guilty of minor bullshit who spent years and
years in prison for a murder he did not commit (because some asshole cop was
out to get him and he got railroaded). So, acting like not sending poor, non-
whites to prison for basically existing somehow will make life scarier is
basically racist bullshit. Or perhaps simply clueless about how things work in
this country.

* [http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/06/20/derrick-hamilto...](http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/06/20/derrick-hamilton-jailhouse-lawyer)

------
will_brown
Just because I believe the number of reported violent crimes suggests our
prison population is underpopulated, doesn't mean I don't also believe the
system may currently be overpopulated with the wrong sorts.

That's why I used numbers for sex crimes only, but more broadly we have ~2.2M
inmates and 1.2M reported violent crimes per year, throwing out all non
violent offenders it would still be hard to conclude our prisons are
overfilled unless All cases had a max sentence of 1 year.

~~~
dang
We detached this subthread from
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14914006](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14914006)
and marked it off-topic.

------
stillhere
Why buy a domain name for a number that will fluctuate over time?

~~~
RBBronson123
My greatest pleasure will be the day I have to buy 60millionjobs.com,
50mill....

------
brndnmtthws
This is great. Not much else to say about it.

~~~
RBBronson123
Thank you

------
angersock
This is really cool, and I hope that your platform takes off! The SMS
integration for texting is also a nice touch. :)

One thing I wonder about is if folks in our industry would be more willing to
have an felon of some variety working with them than somebody who's been
tarred with the racist/sexist/conservative label?

~~~
banned1
Same question I had! Likely answer is YES (at least on HN boards and opinions
to drive appearances, maybe not hiring for real).

------
whataretensors
Love it. Doing good and making money at the same time. What a great idea.

~~~
RBBronson123
I'm hopin'

~~~
stefek99
I like that you've used phrase "double bottom line"

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triple_bottom_line](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triple_bottom_line)

Yes... Helping people, communities, over the generations.

------
sagivo
happy to see you made it to YC, good luck!

~~~
RBBronson123
thank you The YC experience has been great and everyone's been very supportive

------
efficax
p.s. it's a safe haven.

~~~
dang
Ah yes. Typo fixed. Thanks!

------
Danihan
>Attitudes are changing quickly

Are they now? Tell me, which political party is planning on decriminalizing
drug offenses?

~~~
__jal
Unnecessarily bitchy defeatism aside, the answer to your question is the
Democratic Party[1].

[1]
[https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/08/01/cory-...](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/08/01/cory-
booker-puts-marijuana-legalization-at-the-center-of-his-new-racial-justice-
bil/)

~~~
Danihan
It's neither, just correcting misconceptions. It's tiring to constantly hear
people saying we're "making progress" while we continue to perpetuate the same
policy problems that have obviously caused issues for decades and decades.

Correct me if I'm wrong but the bill you mentioned only seems to deal with
marijuana, which I don't think is how most people get drug felonies.

~~~
Mtinie
It may not be most, but according to statistics[1] from 2015, marijuana
accounted for 24% of the drug case sentences. Reducing or eliminating these
would be a major step in the right direction and would in my book count as
"making progress".

1 - [https://www.ussc.gov/sites/default/files/pdf/research-and-
pu...](https://www.ussc.gov/sites/default/files/pdf/research-and-
publications/research-
publications/2016/FY15_Overview_Federal_Criminal_Cases.pdf) (top of page 9)

~~~
Danihan
Another tepid form of progress is fewer "mandatory minimum" sentences, on page
8. That's nice to see at least, thank you for the PDF.

------
spraak
> along with a healthy dose of racism

Er, when is racism ever healthy?

~~~
dang
We detached this subthread from
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14912145](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14912145)
and marked it off-topic.

------
adnam
I wish we heard more stories like these. It might dissuade people from getting
involved in drugs in the first place.

~~~
dang
We detached this subthread from
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14911995](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14911995)
and marked it off-topic.

~~~
adnam
How is this off-topic? Do you mean "off message"?

~~~
dang
'Dissuading people from using drugs in the first place' is pretty far from the
topic of a job board for felons. There's a connection, but it's a generic one.
We've learned that generic tangents aren't good for discussion here.

This is standard HN moderation. When a subthread veers away from the original
topic _and also toward something more generic or ideological_ , we moderate
the subthread as off topic. That caveat is important, since off-topic tangents
can also be whimsical and sometimes more interesting than the original
discussion. But on HN, 'generic' and 'interesting' are incompatible, and the
generic stuff tends to take over the concrete if you let it (+10x when the
material is flammable). Therefore we don't let it.

~~~
adnam
Thank you for the explanation. Since I have your attention momentarily, would
it be possible to delete my entire HN history from the beginning of time?
Posts and comments.

