Gerald Thomas, 50, lost his previous job five months ago and is searching for a new one. While Thomas’ criminal record has made finding a job difficult, the recession means he is facing even more competition in landing a new place of employment.

Like many of the area’s unemployed, Lawrence resident Gerald Thomas, 50, has been working hard trying to find a job since he lost his previous one five months ago.

But Thomas has an extra barrier in the stiff competition for jobs: He must check that little box on an application indicating he has a criminal record.

“They frown on it,” said Thomas of employer reactions to his drug conviction from nearly 20 years ago.

He hasn’t been in trouble since being released, but it’s hard to get away from that criminal record, Thomas said.

“That record haunts you. It will stick with you forever,” he said.

Job seekers with a criminal past face a significant challenge in tight economic times, say local and statewide agencies who assist ex-offenders with getting jobs.

“It’s always been tough,” said Joe Sharpe, an employment consultant at the Lawrence Workforce Center. “(But) it’s more difficult now.”

With the Kansas Department of Labor reporting an unemployment rate of 6.6 percent in Lawrence at the end of June, Sharpe said he’s seeing double and triple the number of people looking for employment.

Kent Sisson, director of the southern parole region with the Kansas Department of Corrections, said the problem for ex-offenders right now is that they are seeing competition in some of the lower-wage jobs. With high unemployment, people who may have traditionally steered clear of minimum-wage jobs are now trying to get any job they can.

“A convicted felon versus someone who isn’t a convicted felon: Who is an employer going to choose?” Sisson said.

Despite the challenges, there are ways for ex-offenders to improve their chances in the job market, said Shannon Murphy, re-entry director at the Douglas County Jail.

Murphy works with inmates being released on how to address a conviction on an application and in an interview.

The key, Murphy said, is getting into the interview where someone has a better opportunity to explain their circumstances.

“Things can look a lot different in black and white,” said Murphy, who helps inmates rehearse a short speech to give to potential employers on how they’re moving on from their criminal past.

And employment plays a vital role in helping ex-offenders move on and leave behind their time on the inside, said Joe Ruskowitz, a Washburn University criminal justice professor who has worked as a deputy warden and deputy secretary of community corrections in the Kansas Department of Corrections.

“The lack of meaningful employment is usually a guaranteed ticket back to prison,” he said. To break that cycle, offenders need opportunities in the community.

Toni Boyles, owner of the Tecumseh retreat center A Place in Time, has given employment opportunities to female ex-offenders coming out of the Kansas correctional system. Boyles said the women she’s hired “were just incredible,” and she encourages other employers to look at the entire circumstances of a person before deciding not to hire someone with a criminal record.

“You have to take it on a case-by-case basis,” she said.

Peter Steimle, a manager at a local employment management agency, said he understands the concerns of employers about those with criminal records. But, like Boyles, he’s seen success stories when employers hire ex-offenders, and he said it’s in the best interest of public safety to give them a chance.

“(They’re) more likely to have a clean future if they have jobs,” he said.

It’s that hope of a clean future that keeps Thomas motivated, even when it seems like few are willing to give him a chance.

“I’m not going to look back and feel sorry for myself,” he said. “We want to be part of society. … You’d like to be forgiven.”