Dave Dahl was released from an Oregon prison in 2005 after serving 15 years across four sentences. He went straight back to the family bakery his father had founded in 1955, started baking an organic whole-grain loaf, and within a decade had built Dave’s Killer Bread into the best-selling organic bread in the United States. Flowers Foods bought the company in 2015 for $275 million. The brand kept Dave’s hiring philosophy: roughly one in three of its production employees has a criminal record.
That model has a name now. It is called Second Chance Employment, and it is the centerpiece of a growing national movement that has direct consequences for clients we represent every week in Racine, Kenosha, and Walworth Counties.
“At Dave’s Killer Bread, we believe in Second Chance Employment: hiring the best person for the job, regardless of criminal history. We have witnessed its transformative power.”
Dave’s Killer Bread Foundation
Why Second Chance Employment Is a Legal Issue, Not Just a Feel-Good Story
The most predictable consequence of a criminal conviction is not jail time. It is the years afterward, when a felony or even a misdemeanor on a background check quietly closes doors. Federal data is consistent: people released from state prison who do not find stable work within a year are roughly twice as likely to be re-arrested within three years as those who do. The fix is not complicated. It is a job.
That is why what Dave’s Killer Bread Foundation built between 2015 and 2022 matters, and what happened to it next matters even more. In December 2022, Jobs for the Future (JFF) acquired the foundation’s Second Chance Hiring program, folding the eight-week employer training cohort into JFF’s Center for Justice and Economic Advancement (see the acquisition FAQ) so the work could scale beyond what a single bakery’s foundation could fund. A separate but parallel effort, the Second Chance Business Coalition, launched in 2021 by the Business Roundtable and co-chaired by JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, has now signed up hundreds of employers publicly committing to expand hiring, training, and advancement of people with records.
For an attorney who handles criminal defense, that shift changes the calculus when we sit down with a client and weigh a plea offer. A conviction is not the career death sentence it was even five years ago, and which protections actually apply often depends on three things most people have never heard of.
What Wisconsin Law Actually Does for People With a Record
Wisconsin is unusual. It has had statewide protection against arrest- and conviction-record discrimination since 1977, longer than most states. It is also one of the most restrictive states in the country on expungement. Both facts matter.
The Wisconsin Fair Employment Act
The Wisconsin Fair Employment Act, § 111.31-.395, makes it unlawful for most employers to refuse to hire, fire, or otherwise discriminate against an applicant or employee because of an arrest or conviction record. The protection covers most private employers in the state.
The catch is the substantial-relationship test. An employer can refuse to hire if the offense is “substantially related to the circumstances of the particular job.” Wisconsin courts read that test broadly. A theft conviction and a cashier role, a drug conviction and a delivery-driver role, an OWI and a CDL position all routinely qualify. The protection collapses when the offense and the job line up.
The lesson for clients: which offense ends up on your record matters as much as whether anything ends up on your record. A negotiated reduction from a theft charge to disorderly conduct can be the difference between getting hired and not.
Expungement, the narrow Wisconsin version
Wisconsin’s expungement statute, § 973.015, is one of the most restrictive in the country. To qualify, all of the following must be true:
- The offense carried a maximum penalty of six years or less (most misdemeanors and Class H/I felonies).
- The defendant was under 25 at the time of the offense.
- The court ordered expungement at sentencing, not later.
- The defendant successfully completed the sentence with no revocation.
That last requirement is the trap. Expungement under § 973.015 is not retroactive. If your sentencing judge did not put it on the record at the time, no later motion can add it. We have seen people lose this protection because nobody asked for it at sentencing six years earlier.
For arrest records that did not lead to conviction, § 165.84 lets a person whose case was dismissed, who was found not guilty, or who was never charged petition the Wisconsin Department of Justice to remove fingerprint and arrest data. This is a separate process from § 973.015 and is widely underused. We covered the mechanics in our Wisconsin Expungement Series Part II on arrest records.
Local ban-the-box ordinances
Wisconsin has no statewide “ban the box” law. Madison and Milwaukee restrict when private employers can ask about criminal history on initial applications. The other 70+ counties do not. If you live and work in Racine, Kenosha, or Walworth, the employer is free to ask about your record on the first page of the application unless they have voluntarily adopted a Fair Chance hiring policy.
Federal Fair Chance Protections
Federal law adds a second layer for some workers.
The Fair Chance Act, effective December 2021, prohibits federal agencies and federal contractors from asking about criminal history before extending a conditional job offer. It does not reach private employers in Wisconsin who do not hold federal contracts.
EEOC enforcement guidance (2012, still in force) treats blanket bans on hiring people with records as potential disparate-impact discrimination under Title VII, because such bans fall disproportionately on Black and Hispanic applicants. The EEOC expects employers to do an individualized assessment that considers the nature of the offense, the time elapsed, and the nature of the job. Many large employers shifted their policies to comply, which is part of why the Second Chance Business Coalition’s growth has been possible.
For licensed professions, Wisconsin’s Department of Safety and Professional Services regulates more than 200 license types. Each board independently weighs criminal history at application and renewal. A conviction an employer might overlook can still cost you the license that makes the job possible. We discuss this in more depth in The Civil Consequences of a Criminal Conviction, Part 1: Employment.
What This Means If You Are Charged Today
Three takeaways from a defense lawyer’s chair:
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The charge that ends up on your record controls everything that follows. Not just sentencing, but whether the Wisconsin Fair Employment Act protection actually applies to you, whether a license board will hold the conviction against you, and whether a Second Chance employer can hire you for the role you want. The work to negotiate a charge down to something with a different “substantial relationship” footprint is some of the most consequential work we do.
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If you are under 25 and charged with anything carrying six years or less, ask about § 973.015 expungement at sentencing. Once the moment passes, no later motion brings it back. This is the single most missed opportunity in Wisconsin criminal practice.
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Second Chance employers are real, and they are growing. Dave’s Killer Bread, the foundation’s coalition members, and a long list of trades and manufacturing employers across southeastern Wisconsin actively recruit people with records. A conviction is not the wall it used to be, but you have to know which doors are open.
If you or someone you know is facing a criminal charge in Racine, Kenosha, or Walworth County, the time to think about employment consequences is before the plea, not after. Call or text our office at (262) 632-5000 or use the contact form on this page.
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