Women’s Council Report: Implementing Social Work Values

What Social Work Educators Can Do

By Marilyn Montenegro

The consequences of a criminal conviction are so severe and enduring that they effectively challenge one’s fundamental status as a member of society.

Did you know that the number of social work students with criminal histories is increasing?

Students with criminal histories are routinely excluded from many fieldwork agencies.

As a result of the difficulty in securing appropriate internships, some schools of social work are considering refusing to admit applicants with criminal histories.

Some California licensing agencies prohibit licensed facilities from accepting interns with any criminal conviction history until they are issued an individual “exemption” by the licensing agency.

Social work students with criminal histories often feel unwelcome at schools in which they are being taught professional values including the belief that change is possible, rehabilitation works and everyone deserves a second chance. Their personal experiences of exclusion from social work settings contradict these professional values. The values appear to apply to interactions with those of inferior status (clients) but not to them as potential equals (colleagues). How can we be sure that restored students with criminal histories are welcomed into the profession and able to obtain the training that will allow them to use their lived experience as a foundation for optimal development of social work skills?

What Can Individual Social Work Educators Do?

• Discuss barriers faced by the one in four California adults with a criminal history with students.
• Provide information about legal remedies (e.g., expungement, certificate of rehabilitation, felony reduction under Proposition 47) available to students and their clients with criminal histories.
• Explore the meaning of and criteria for rehabilitation and recovery in the context of social work practice with students.

What Can Social Work Departments Do?

• Inform applicants and entering students of the ways in which a criminal history may limit access to internships and impede registration for licensing with the Board of Behavioral Sciences.
• Survey all agencies, which provide fieldwork settings to determine their policies regarding interns with criminal histories.
• Determine the reason for exclusionary policies (i.e., funder or licensing agency requirement) where they exist.
• Use this information to develop strategies toward policy change, which would increase placement options for restored students with criminal histories.
• Develop collaborative relationships with other schools of social work focusing on the issue of expanding opportunities for rehabilitated students with criminal histories.

What Could a Coalition of Social Work Educators Do?

• Identify state licensing agencies, which require individual evaluation and exemption for every potential intern with a criminal history.
• Meet with licensing agencies to develop a streamlined evaluation process, which would allow requests for exemption to be submitted as soon as a student is accepted into a social work program so that an exemption may be granted prior to the beginning of the academic year.
• Assist fieldwork agencies to adopt realistic policies regarding criminal history and rehabilitation to increase placement options.

The Women’s Council discusses a variety of ethical, practice and advocacy issues at its bi-monthly meetings held in the greater Los Angeles area. The next meeting of the Women’s Council is Saturday, September 19, 2015 at 10:00am in Los Alamitos. To learn more about organizing for inclusion and/or information about the Women’s Council, contact womenscouncil@sbcglobal.net or mujerista@All2Easy.net.