This week, Target became one of the few corporations to implement a ban on asking applicants about their criminal history or performing background checks prior to an initial interview with a candidate. The ban, which rolls out early next year in stores nationwide, is intended to level the playing field for formerly incarcerated people trying to reenter society and comes after protesters from Take Action Minnesota targeted the corporation at its Minneapolis headquarters earlier this year.

From ThinkProgress:

“When an employer sees that box checked, it can be an automatic disqualifier. And the practice is so widespread that it can really hurt the chances for employment for ex-offenders. Surveys show that between 60 and 75 percent of people with a criminal past can’t find a job for up to a year after they’ve been released.”

“Employment discrimination along these lines can also contribute to higher recidivism rates; when former inmates can’t find a job, they might feel that illegal activities — say drug dealing or theft — are their only inroad toward having money to live.”

Though Minnesota is currently one of 10 states that have laws that ‘ban the box’ on government applications, this month it became the 4th state to prohibit early questions about criminal history for private companies.

This comes on the heels of another win for the ‘ban the box’ movement. Earlier this month Gov. Jerry Brown signed into law a policy that bans the box from any California government application. The move expands the law to at least6,000 California local and regional agencies that were not previously operating under the policy.

More from ThinkProgress:

“The federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission gave this movement a lift last year, when it expanded and updated a ruling that barred employers from automatically denying people jobs based on arrest or conviction records. The E.E.O.C. guidance made clear that an arrest alone is not proof of illegal conduct or grounds for exclusion from employment. It also explained that employers need to take into account the seriousness of the offense, the time that has passed since it was committed and the relevance of the crime to the job being sought.”

Since there are currently 65 million Americans who have a criminal history, advocates hope that the trend continues and employers’ premature criminal history questions become a discriminatory practice of yesteryear.