In 2011, BUILD began to research re-entry and learned that 20,000 people in Lexington have a criminal background. It was determined that almost every problem related to re-entry branches from employment barriers, specifically, employers not willing to hiring ex-offenders. There were a number of organizations training and providing services to prepare ex-offenders for the job market, but the majority of ex-offenders were still not being hired due to their criminal history. Studies show that if ex-offenders do not obtain employment within 90 days of release, they are 500 times more likely to re-offend. BUILD also looked for best practices in other communities and found that many communities now conduct criminal background checks only for positions that require them by law or sensitive positions for which a background check is necessary. For example, in Minneapolis, nearly 60% of applicants with a potentially disqualifying record were hired in 2007, compared to 5.7% under the prior policy. As a result of BUILD’s 2012 Nehemiah Action, Lexington’s Mayor, his administration, and local employers agreed to attend an Ex-Offender Employment Workshop to deepen their understanding of fair, effective hiring practices. Following this workshop, Mayor Gray committed to promote hiring policies that help reduce recidivism by getting people with a criminal history back to work.
