Washington lawmakers are discussing a bill that would end the automatic disqualification of people with certain criminal convictions from working with vulnerable populations in health care or home care.
Bill sponsors say it would address the shortage of qualified caretakers and empower people with convictions to take charge of their lives.
House Bill 1411 would allow people with certain crimes on their record to be eligible to apply for jobs with the Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS) at long-term care facilities or as in-home caretakers.
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Eligibility is never restored for people convicted of offenses such as a class A felony, a sex offense, a crime that includes sexual motivation or vehicular assault.
I’ve always thought laws disqualifying certain people from certain jobs essentially do a prospective employer’s thinking for them. Such decisions should be made by employers. It’s their risk, after all.
This was the exact circumstance that my old roommate experienced. He was a geriatric therapist and lost his license for a misdemeanor. Nothing to do with older population, but they grouped it all together. I remember him saying there was a sex offender with a serious felony living where he worked and that this seemed to be o.k. With the facility, but he couldn’t work there because the state thought he was not suitable. He has since moved overseas and was working in Germany with no issues. Same job. The U.S. is just plain screwed up.
Fascinating to juxtapose this against the article that explains how no one cares that SO’s are dying in hospitals, but oooooohhhh now they want SO’s to take care of them? Screw these hypocrites and may corona wipe them from the earth.