Ohio is among a consortium of 37 states, red and blue alike, that already have laws banning the box in public sector employment, according to the National Employment Law Project. Only 15 states, most of which lean Democratic, have extended that rule to the private sector.
Tims recently told a crowd at the 2025 Dayton Regional Impact Ohio Conference that banning the box was a priority for her. She told this outlet via text message that she’ll introduce legislation to the Ohio House once lawmakers return from summer recess.
Asked if her bill would get bipartisan support, Tims said, “One can only hope!” She couldn’t be reached for a full interview before publication.
Tims will need her proposal to get more immediate play in the House than Senate Bill 143, a bipartisan measure carried by Sens. Hearcel Craig, D-Columbus, and Bill Blessing, R-Colerain Twp., has gotten in the Senate. Introduced in March, S.B. 143 has stalled in a committee chaired by Sen. Kyle Koehler, R-Springfield, without a hearing and without public debate.
S.B. 143 wouldn’t fully block private sector employers from doing their own due diligence. They could still perform background checks, but they would be blocked from considering “an arrest not followed by conviction or referral to or participation in a pre-trial diversion program.”
The proposal goes on to limit employers to only denying an applicant based on their criminal history if that applicant’s background has “a direct and adverse relationship with the specific duties of that job.”
In an interview, Blessing cast doubt on whether his Republican colleagues, who have a firm grip on the Ohio General Assembly, would put their weight behind S.B. 143.
“I know that this is probably going to go nowhere in the General Assembly, but it’s a shame because it’s well-intended and I think it does try to address something that I think is a problem,” Blessing said.
Blessing believes “the box” exists on applications most often to filter out past convicts, to the point where he described their exclusion from serious consideration as “automatic” in most cases.
“I just think it’s a basic justice thing. You know, you’ve paid your debt to society,” Blessing said. “I believe there’s some nuance to this, but by and large, having employers just say, ‘You get one strike,’ and there’s no way you can repay your debt to society for us to say, ‘Oh, we’re not just going to overlook you’ — that’s just fundamentally unfair."
He conceded that the idea, even if it were passed into law, might not be transformative, “but these little reforms add up.”
The idea has garnered support from the Ohio Justice & Policy Center, which is monitoring some 60 legislative proposals at the time of reporting.
“One in every three Ohioans has a criminal record of some kind. Banning the box, it’s popular, it’s good for employers, it’s good for the economy, and of course, we think it’s great for justice-impacted people,” said Michaela Burriss, an attorney who serves as the policy director for the OJPC.
Burriss said she’d expect banning the box in the private sector to encourage more people to apply for jobs, as many people with criminal records preemptively remove themselves from consideration for a role if they see an application ask about criminal histories. Burriss described financial instability and recidivism as knock-on effects from a lack of job opportunity, both of which are costly to the state.
Business concerns
Still, there are competing interests from the private sector, which doesn’t often take kindly to restrictive government mandates.
“Broadly, we have concerns as a pro-business organization any time we restrict a private business from being able to conduct what they need in their hiring processes. That’s probably bottom line what the concerns are,” Dayton Area Chamber of Commerce Vice President Stephanie Keinath told this outlet.
That sentiment is echoed among some of Tims’ colleagues, including area Rep. Phil Plummer, R-Butler Twp., who told this outlet he’d oppose the measure. “They definitely should be able to ask,” he said.
But, from the top of the state down, 2025 has brought conversations about how being more accepting of formerly incarcerated applicants may be one of several ways to contend with workforce shortages in the state.
In March’s State of the State address, Gov. Mike DeWine briefly highlighted the state’s efforts to provide specialized training to the state’s incarcerated population, of which some 18,000 leave the corrections system and reenter society each year.
“Our trained ex-offenders want to work. I say to the employers in Ohio: Give them a chance. Help them find the dignity, purpose, and hope that comes with a job,” DeWine said in his address to lawmakers.
When this news outlet asked Republican legislative leadership about DeWine’s remarks and the legislature’s role in promoting employment for the state’s ex-offenders, their answer didn’t hinge on banning the box. It did, however, recognize the population as an important piece of the puzzle.
“We really should be looking at ways to make the pathway from incarceration into the job market easier because ultimately, if they can’t find work, they’re probably on one of the government welfare programs that we’re ultimately paying for,” Senate President Rob McColley said in a press conference. “And if they’re not on that program, then it still should be a benefit to all of us that they’re contributing to the employment of the state.”
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Avery Kreemer can be reached at 614-981-1422, on X, via email, or you can drop him a comment/tip with the survey below.
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