US Criminal Justice Initiative Recruits 90 Companies to Employ Ex-Cons

90 US companies, including Facebook, Coca-Cola, and Pepsico, are going to take part in the Fair Chance Business Pledge, which aimed at reintegrating formerly incarcerated people into society.

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — The White House has secured pledges from more than 90 US companies to hire individuals with a criminal background, Senior Advisor to the US President, Valerie Jarrett, said on Monday.

"When we launched this fair pledge, we had nine companies… who agreed to come forward… but since that time we are now up to 90 companies," Jarrett stated at a White House event on criminal justice reform.

Facebook, Coca-Cola, and Pepsico are among the larger companies taking part in the Fair Chance Business Pledge. The pledge is aimed at reintegrating formerly incarcerated people into society by lifting barriers to employment placed on the nearly 70 million US citizens who have a criminal background.

Part of the initiative requests participating companies to postpone raising questions of criminal background until later in the hiring process. Many US companies require disclosure of previous criminal histories in the initial phase of hiring.

The United States has the largest prison population of all developed countries, representing 22 percent of the world’s prison population. There are currently over 2 million persons incarcerated in US prisons.