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Screening the background screeners
Public Exoneration will not wait too long for the slow moving court system to recognize your publicly validated innocence. If post-custody and cannot find a meaningful job or decent place to rent, we incentivize these background screening entities to do the right thing.
Browse the Employment screening companies tab to explore background screeners for employers. Click on the Tenant screening companies tab for background screeners for landlords. Click the last tab for more options.
Employment screening
This list is curated by the Consumer Law Firm. Agencies come and go, join others and change scope. Some of these links may need updating. If you find any broken or incorrect links, please let us know in the comments below.
Associations of consumer reporting agencies
Collateral consequences of a miscarriage of justice
Why the need for this list of consumer reporting agencies? Because they serve as a key conduit for perpetuating injustice against the innocent, whether they realize it or not.
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Instead of replicating the errant binary of the criminal judicial system (i.e., guilty or not guilty), need-response recommends all criminal background checking services employ our best practice. Let their clients know:
1) the scale of overlooked innocence,
2) the imperfections of the adversarial legal system,
3) the risk of being complicit in perpetuating this injustice, and
4) recognizing the likely innocence of the checked individual.
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Be honest with background check seekers. "The person you are checking has a conviction they have consistently challenged, and now with persuasive evidence. The criminal justice system is unable to identify and correct the vast number of these errors in a timely manner. You are recommended to consider their record in totality when deciding to hire them" or "lease your property to them."
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Need-response can help you onboard this best practice, to improve your competitive advantage over others risking complicity in condemning the innocent to second class citizenship. Learn more by checking out these resources.
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National Inventory of Collateral Consequences of Conviction
Check their inventory of 40,000 consequences for a criminal conviction.
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Collateral Consequences of Criminal Convictions: Judicial Bench Book (pdf)
Published the National Inventory of Collateral Consequences of Criminal Convictions with funding from the U.S. Department of Justice. 20 pages.
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The Collateral Consequences of Wrongful Conviction (pdf)
Alvier, A. (2021). The Collateral Consequences of Wrongful Conviction, International Journal of Arts Humanities and Social Science Studies, 6, 4.
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COLLATERAL CONSEQUENCES: The Crossroads of Punishment, Redemption, and the Effects on Communities (pdf)
Published by the US Commission on Civil Rights. 174 pages.
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Removing Barriers and Restoring Hope: The Basics of Expungements and Certificates of Relief (pdf)
Written by Daniel Bowes, supervising attorney of Second Chance Employment Project, and by Legal Aid of North Carolina
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65 Million Need Not Apply (pdf)
Published by the National Employment Law Project (NELP) in 2011
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How “Collateral Consequences” Keep People Trapped in the Legal System 2023 Nov 29
Article by Vera.org about how the harms of mass incarceration extend far beyond courtrooms, jail cells, and prison beds.
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Informed Decisions Act (IDA)
This is a bill I drafted years ago to address this problem. Since the political system remains hampered by the same adversarialism as the judicial system, there was no political will to fix this less visible problem legislatively. Need-response seeks to fix this problem with market incentives.
We help "innocence offenders" to no longer violate the rights of the wrongly convicted innocent
"Could I be an innocence offender?"
Yes,
if you treat the wrongly convicted innocent as if guilty.
And most of the wrongly convicted innocent are not exonerated.
Exploiting our patience
We cannot and must not wait indefinitely for the adversarialist elite-led institution of the judiciary to admit its own offenses against the innocent. Our legalistic institutions are not properly incentivized to admit or correct its continuing violence against the innocent.
Asserting our innocence
Public exoneration goes directly to the public with its more scientifically disciplined approach. All consumer reporting agencies relying falsely upon oversimplified court records face public scrutiny. We incentivize them to adopt the new best practice of
including context for a questioned conviction,
instead of complicitly replicating the courts’ “innocence offending” with passive disregard.
Publicizing our intent
This includes, but is not limited to, issuing a Notification of Intent to any offending background screening service, whether a consumer reporting agency under the Fair Credit Reporting Act or not. The new profession of need-response raises the standard from
compliance to laws
to the
measurable responsive to the needs that laws exist to serve.
Spreading our love
If mere compliance replicates the injustice of offending the wrongly convicted innocent, then a legalistic approach is not enough. We vouch for the improved legitimacy of any of these entities when they demonstrably shift from such toxic legalism to engaging the needs themselves. We incentivize our untapped potential for honoring the needs of others as our own, for love.
Joining our movement
If you are a background screening service, let this Notice of Intent invite you to enter this better way to serve your clients. Join us in turning innocence offending into innocence support, as illustrated in these two examples.
Sample NOIs to consumer reporting agencies warning against perpetuating this injustice
Notice of Intent warning of discriminating against the innocent
To: Background Check Services, Inc.
From: William Best support team
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You are in your legal right to deny William Best employment because of a past felony conviction. We are in our right to spread the word that William Best not only maintains his innocence of all charges, but demonstrates actual innocence on many grounds.
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William Best was found to be likely innocence with 87% certainty, when comparing his case to those already exonerated.
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William Best was misidentified in a lineup that failed to apply best practices; and the same exact crime (excused as a copycat) occurred again three days later.
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William Best has no other felony conviction record, and has remained trouble free throughout the 13 years since released from prison.
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William Best consistently maintained his full innocence throughout prison, costing him parole four times.
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After being released from prison, William Best finished his bachelors degree in engineering, and seeks to earn a master’s degree in mechanical engineering.
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Need-response, the new professional service addressing needs underserved by adversarial laws, invites you to go beyond legal minimums. Need-response offers the best practice to replace sole reliance upon the court record with a more nuanced approach respecting the overlooked rights of the innocent.
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Instead of denying him employment, you can report "he stands out as likely innocent and may be worth the risk of the employer to offer him a job."
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The adversarial legal process tends to be slow to identify and correct wrongful such convictions. If not critical of the court record, and ignoring this recommendation, you risk complicity in violating the neglected rights of the innocent.
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Join need-response and William Best's support team in giving him a chance to further prove his innocence. Apply the new best practice of adding context to this conviction record. Grant the employer more discretion with better information.
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Join us in correcting this illicit discrimination from the adversarial legal process. No one is perfect, least of all the judicial system. Accept our recommendations and help us fulfill the purpose of law: to fairly resolve needs with dignity.
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Thank you.
Your helpful input
If you find any broken or misdirected links, please let us know. If you know of a background screening company we missed, please let us know. Thank you.