Criminal Records to be Withheld...

This sounds "smart." "Smart," as in "what a great idea!" Yeah. Not. The chief of the Prisons Authority, says that "employers refrain from employing people with criminal records." No kidding. Wonder why? Perhaps because if someone had committed a crime, lets just use "theft," a potential employer who, for example, owns a jewelry store, might not want to hire that person to work in his jewelry store in order to prevent either goods or money from disappearing? So, instead of protecting the employers, the criminals are going to be protected. Makes all the sense in the world. This way "inmates will not be socially stigmatized and excluded if employers do not know of their past criminal behavior."

I have no idea what a job application in the Sandbox looks like. Maybe they don't even use "job applications," like those that are used in the States. I do know, though, that before we came to work here - DH is the only one working - we were both required to go through rigorous background and screening measures, and a criminal records check was a part of this process. DH's employer doesn't want employees with a past criminal history working there. Simple as that. It would probably be fair to say that a lot of employers "refrain" from hiring employees with a dubious past.

If a person has done jail time for whatever crime, and that person is released back into the mainstream populace - no matter where he or she is - then that person deserves a second chance to show that he or she has paid their debt society and should be allowed to get on with their life. Which means get a job, be responsible, and do the right thing from hereon out. There are plenty of ways for people to go about doing this; but to "conceal [the] first two offenses from [a potential] employer" is a big mistake.

These "new measures" are just bound to come back and bite someone in the ass...