Matthew Daneman

USA TODAY

Precious Bedell estimates that when she got out of prison, the literally hundreds of job applications she filled out all had one glaring problem — the big black mark in the box asking if she had any kind of criminal record.

"There are a lot of people who do redeem themselves," the Rochester woman said after testifying during a recent Rochester City Council public hearing on a proposal to prohibit prospective employers from asking that question on job applications. "You can't undo the crime. If you hold the person accountable for it for the rest of their lives, you're just as bad."

A growing number of cities and states are putting limits on how and when prospective employers can ask about an applicant's criminal background.

Indianapolis city and county agencies stopped asking about past criminal convictions earlier this year on initial job applications, as well as requiring the same from contractors doing business with them. Baltimore last week passed legislation restricting private employers from asking. Nebraska last month banned public employers from asking, as did Delaware in 2013. Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn in 2013 signed an executive order saying applicants for state jobs with will not be asked about criminal history at the offset of the application process.

Minnesota, which since 2009 had prohibited the question of private-sector employers, expanded it as of Jan. 1 of this year to public-sector employers as well. Seattle did likewise in 2013, and similar rules went into effect in Buffalo this year. California will begin enforcing a similar policy July 1. And New Jersey lawmakers are considering the Opportunity to Compete Act, which would prohibit any business with 15 or more workers from asking about criminal history on job applications.

According to the National Employment Law Project, 62 local governments have adopted such bans over the past decade, including several in the first few months of 2014. A dozen states also have taken similar steps. And some private-sector employers have changed their own hiring policies in response. Minnesota-based retail giant Target Corp. last year said it would stop asking prospective employees in initial job applications about criminal records. Indianapolis-based Citizens Energy Group did likewise.

"We found the tide was moving to remove the question," said Cheryl Brown, human resources director for the city of Charlotte, N.C., which earlier this year decided to stop asking the question of applicants for city jobs. "We concluded as well the question wasn't really necessary and could serve as a deterrent to candidates otherwise qualified for certain jobs.

"We have not changed our background check process whatsoever," she said. "We still conduct very thorough background checks."

A national Ban the Box campaign — named after the idea of doing away with that criminal record checkoff common on job applications — started about a decade ago, as growing numbers of the formerly incarcerated, having done their time, ran into problems getting jobs, said Jesse Stout, policy director at California's Legal Services for Prisoners with Children.

"Most employers, public and private, were outright discriminating against anyone with any kind of conviction history, would throw out their application without even looking at it," Stout said.

For proponents of Ban the Box, the aim is not leave employers unaware of their workers' background, but to have the information come up later in the hiring process, after applicants have had a chance for an initial interview.

"It's the right of an employer to know certain things about an employee," said Indianapolis City-County Councilman Vop Osili, who pushed for the legislation there. "We're trying to reduce that initial stigma, that initial rejection based on that box. That box does not ask how long ago (the crime) was, it does not ask about circumstances."

The National Employment Law Project estimates that one in four Americans have some arrest or conviction record, usually for nonviolent offenses. And a 2009 report by the U.S. Justice Department's National Institute of Justice found people with criminal backgrounds got callbacks or job offers at roughly half the rate of people with clean records.

New York is among a number of states that prohibit employers from rejecting job candidates with prior convictions except when there's a clear link between the type of crime and the job sought. The State Attorney General said in April that Bed Bath & Beyond had agreed to pay $125,000 in fines and change its hiring policies after an investigation by the state agency found the retail chain had automatically shot down applicants with felony convictions.

Daneman also reports for the Rochester (N.Y.) Democrat and Chronicle