D.C. Might Shield Ex-Felons From Discrimination

At one point during the contentious hearing, Barry stopped the proceedings with an announcement that "six to eight officers" had assembled in the room next door. He and council member Carol Schwartz (R-At Large), who chairs the workforce development and government operations committee, left the dais and asked the officers to leave, which they did promptly. Barry said the police were present merely because ex-offenders were at the hearing.

Council members seemed moved by the personal stories of the ex-felons who testified at the hearing.

Chantel Rollins, 28, said she was homeless and trying to care for her two children when she was convicted of felony theft in 2004. She knew that stealing was wrong, she said, but she did it to make ends meet. She spent a week in jail. Before the conviction, she said, employers would at least return her calls. Afterward, her phone didn't ring.

"I had no hope for getting a job, because I had that red flag on my record," Rollins said.

She found hope in a city program called Project Empowerment, which teaches former inmates job skills and temporarily pays them to work for the city or nonprofit groups. She is temporarily working at Goodwill and soon will work for the nonprofit Peaceoholics.

Wilder said the program helped him, too. At 46, it was the first real job he'd had. In 10 months, initially earning $7.50 an hour and rising at 5 a.m. to collect trash, he has his own apartment, has opened a checking account and has saved a little money.

"I never had a bank account or my own place with my name on the lease," he said. "You feel better about yourself. You're motivated."

But his status is tenuous. His time in the program has run out, and he's looking for a job. "It would be easy to go back to the streets," he said. "I don't want to do that."