Experts say the Clean Slate scheme, which gives some offenders the right to not disclose their criminal convictions, isn't working and some people who deserve to can't put their past behind them.
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The scheme applies to people who haven't been convicted in seven years and who've never been convicted of a serious offence.
It doesn't apply to anyone who had been in prison.
Richard* hadn't been in jail since 1978, and his last conviction was in the nineties.
Almost half a century later, he was still having trouble getting work - despite holding multiple diplomas.
"On average I've applied for 35 jobs a week on the Work and Income website," he said.
"Jobs that I was capable of doing, jobs that I was qualified for - no response."
Richard said it was frustrating being haunted by the mistakes he made as a young man.
Christchurch charity Pathway had been helping released prisoners get work for more than 20 years.
Its reintegration manager Anaru Baynes said an individualised approach, where someone from Corrections or Probation assessed whether a person should be covered by the scheme, would be much better.
"Someone could go to a job interview and go 'No I really have earned the chance to have a fresh start which means I can come from a purely strengths-based stance in this interview'," he said.
"We're kind of having to operate in spite of the Clean Slate scheme at the moment."
As ex-prisoners, none of the people he worked with were eligible under the system.
Instead, Baynes could only encourage them to tell would-be employers how they'd grown, and hope they were understanding.
Human rights lawyer Michael Bott said the Clean Slate scheme was stopped from achieving its full potential by the law and order hysteria when the legislation was passed in 2004.
He said it needed updating, and minor convictions - which show under a person's full record despite the act - should be completely expunged.
Even people who had been in prison were unlikely to reoffend if they hadn't within 10 years of being released, he said.
"Shouldn't we be realistic and allow them to put their past behind them? As opposed to the focus on vengeance and payback, and making them suffer in perpetuity and actually increasing their chances of reoffending."
Bott said the bar was getting lower and many employers now asked about previous charges, rather than convictions.
A 2020 briefing to then incoming Justice Minister Kris Faafoi suggested the Clean Slate scheme be expanded.
A spokesperson from his office said no decisions had yet been made.
These days, Richard spent his time volunteering at a community garden in exchange for vegetables.
In his late sixties, he was still looking for a job to support him through retirement, but so far hadn't had any luck.
"I know why I don't get the job. I don't get the job because of my criminal history," he said.
"But can I do anything about it? No."
Corrections said most of its work experience programmes were currently on hold because of Covid.
It also runs a recruitment service for former offenders since 2016.
The department said it occasionally received requests from people with a historical offence who still struggled to find employment - it'd worked on 60 of these since July last year.
