• Ban-the-Box legislation is legislation requiring that job application questions relating to most types of criminal convictions be removed from applications and/or not asked of an applicant until a second interview or conditional offer of employment has been made. work. (Bath laws are also known as “fair odds” laws.) There are two rationales behind the crate ban legislation. First, approximately 70 million people have some form of criminal record. Potentially excluding (or even reducing the chances of) so many from participation in the labor force would have serious negative economic and personal consequences for a huge number of people. Secondly, it is almost universally recognized that the presence of a criminal record significantly complicates employment. This, in turn, increases the likelihood that a person recently released from prison will not be able to find a job, which increases the likelihood that the person will return to criminal activity and eventually end up in prison. As of October 1, 2016, 24 states (plus Washington DC) and more than 150 cities and counties have enacted ban boxes.