The Atlanta City Council has amended the City of Atlanta Anti-Discrimination Ordinance to extend protections to citizens on the basis of criminal history status and gender expression in employment, housing, and public accommodations. The City of Atlanta Anti-Discrimination Ordinance was initially enacted in December of 2000.
The new criminal history protection makes it unlawful for Atlanta employers generally to disqualify applicants or single out employees based on their criminal conviction histories, without further individualized consideration.
The rationale for this protection is based on the theory that having a job can reduce an individual’s likelihood for recidivism, allowing the individual to get on with living a productive life. It is unclear how many Atlanta citizens are formerly incarcerated, but Georgia has an incarceration rate higher than the national average and persons of color are overrepresented in prisons and jails, according to the Prison Policy Initiative.
The new Atlanta ordinance provides, however, that employers may consider criminal conviction histories to the extent the criminal history is “related to the position’s responsibilities,” as determined by the evaluation of the following factors:
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