Jobs for Felons in Maryland

Maryland's Criminal Record Screening Practices Act covers private employers with 15 or more full-time employees. They cannot make you disclose a criminal record or criminal charges before the first in-person interview. They can ask during that interview.

It covers temp, seasonal, contract and staffing-agency work. It does not cover employers that serve or care for minors or vulnerable adults, or questions another federal or state law requires or allows. Local governments can pass stricter rules.

You can file a complaint with the Maryland Department of Labor. The state first orders the employer to comply, and for a repeat violation it can fine up to $300 per applicant. The employer cannot retaliate against you for complaining. The law controls when an employer asks, not whether it can say no.

A state hiring office cannot ask about your record until you have had a chance to interview. Jobs in the corrections department, sheriff's offices, and jobs where a record check is required by law are excluded.

Baltimore City goes further. Employers with the equivalent of 10 or more full-time employees cannot run a criminal record check or ask about your record until after a conditional job offer. Employers that serve minors or vulnerable adults are exempt. Complaints go to the city's Community Relations Commission.

Montgomery County also says employers cannot ask about arrests or convictions, or run a background check, before a conditional offer, and must give you notice before pulling an offer over your record. The county's page does not clearly say which employers are covered, so check whether this applies to you with the county Office of Human Rights. Other counties and cities may have their own rules.

Maryland law has a 7-year limit on paper: a background check company may not report arrests, charges or convictions more than 7 years old (counted from disposition, release or parole), except for jobs paying $75,000 a year or more. But federal law puts no time limit on reporting convictions, and federal law may override the state limit, so expect older convictions to show up on some checks. If one does, ask legal aid whether you have a claim.

Charges that did not end in a conviction (acquittal, dismissal, nolle prosequi, stet, probation before judgment) can be expunged, and it is free. If every charge in a case was acquitted, dismissed, found not guilty or nolle prossed on or after October 1, 2021, the court expunges the case automatically after 3 years. You can ask sooner at no charge.

Only offenses on a list in the law qualify. For listed misdemeanors, you can generally file 5 years after you finish your whole sentence, including probation or parole. Listed felonies (felony theft, possession with intent to distribute, and some burglary offenses) take 7 or 10 years. A new conviction during the wait blocks it. Since October 1, 2025, the wait runs from completion of the sentence.

The court fee is $30 per case for a guilty disposition, and you can ask the court to waive it. The Maryland Courts expungement page has an eligibility tool for the full list.

A conviction for simple possession of cannabis can be expunged once the sentence is done. The state was also required to automatically clear cases where cannabis possession was the only charge and was charged before July 1, 2023. For other convictions, Clean Slate bills in 2026 did not pass, so you still have to file.

Shielding hides certain minor convictions (like disorderly conduct, drug possession, trespass, or driving on a suspended license) from the public and from Case Search. You can file 3 years after finishing your sentence, and you get only one shielding petition in your lifetime. Most employers then cannot make you disclose it. Employers that are legally required or allowed to check, and anyone hiring to care for children or vulnerable adults, can still see it.

An employer cannot make you disclose expunged charges on an application or in an interview, and cannot fire you or refuse to hire you only because you would not talk about them. The same goes for state and local licenses and permits.

Licenses from the state departments of Agriculture, Environment, Health, Human Services and Labor: they cannot deny you only because of a conviction unless it directly relates to the license or creates an unreasonable risk. If 7 years have passed since you finished your sentence with no new charges (other than minor traffic), they cannot deny you over that conviction at all. This does not apply to crimes of violence or registrable sex offenses.

New since July 1, 2026: you can ask one of those departments, before you train or apply, whether your record would disqualify you. The answer is binding unless your record gets worse, and a no comes with a reason. The fee is up to $100, waived if your income is at or below 300% of the federal poverty level. You can ask again after a year. This program is set to end June 30, 2029.

Federal EEOC guidance from 2012 warns employers that blanket “no felons” policies can violate Title VII, but since April 2025 a federal executive order has told agencies to deprioritize this kind of case. In Maryland, your tools are the ban-the-box complaint, the local rules, and clearing your record.