“Activist types have been going on about “banning the box” in employment for a while now—the “box” being the request for an applicant’s criminal history, which critics say inspires prejudice and hinders formerly incarcerated people from reentering the workforce. As criminal justice reform has gone mainstream in America, federal agencies, states, and local municipalities have begun banning the box from their employment practices, making it illegal for public, and sometimes private, companies to include it on their job applications. (That doesn’t mean employers can’t still conduct background checks.)”