JPMorgan today is announcing several major steps to encourage second-chance hiring for those with criminal records. The bank is officially "banning the box"—removing all questions about criminal records from its job applications. It will steer more than $7 million toward organizations that provide job- and life-skills training to the formerly incarcerated. The bank is also launching a new “policy center,” a think tank of sorts that will design and advocate for regulatory changes around certain economic issues. Its first agenda item: reforming rules that effectively bar former felons from employment, in finance and elsewhere.
The new think tank, JPMorgan Chase PolicyCenter (website here), will be run by Heather Higginbottom, a former US Deputy Secretary of State under President Barack Obama. She is also a founder and former executive director of national security think tank American Security Project (ASP).
In 2015, JPMorgan launched a think tank (JPMorgan Chase Institute) dedicated to delivering data-rich analysis and expert insights for the public good.