"Would you hire a convicted felon?" The question surfaced in the Power Washing, Soft Washing & Window Cleaning Worldwide Facebook group and drew over 115 responses. The answers split predictably. Most agreed that people who have served their time — violent offenders aside — deserve a shot. But not everyone felt their company was the right place to offer one, especially residential crews working in and around homes.

Some owners shared stories of theft or worse. Others reported the opposite: hiring convicted felons turned out to be one of the best staffing decisions they ever made. Aaron Williams of HomeWash Exterior Cleaning put it plainly: "If they've repaid their debt to society, they deserve a fair chance. I've found them to be the hardest working, humblest workers ever." Several contractors echoed that experience. A few said they hire primarily from that pool. And more than a handful of respondents were convicted felons themselves — now running successful cleaning companies.

From Counterfeiting to Pressure Washing: Dustin Force's Story

Dustin Force owns Extra Mile Power Washing, volunteers as a professional chef with Mercy Chefs — a nonprofit that feeds first responders at disaster sites — and has traveled the country cooking through hurricane cleanups and the California wildfires. He is also a convicted felon, and he gave permission to share his story.

At 19, Dustin wanted culinary school but couldn't afford it. Working as a line cook, he and his boss hatched a plan: counterfeit $10 bills. After producing roughly $200 worth, they were caught. At 21, Dustin was convicted of forging and distributing fraudulent bank notes — two felony counts in West Virginia and Virginia. He faced 25 years in prison, reduced to five years of supervised probation and community service.

"From that point forward, I busted my butt, got a promotion and raise at work, paid off all fines, restitution, community service, and $10,000 in lawyer fees within a few short months," Dustin explained. "I got off probation after just 2.5 years and never looked back." He entered culinary school, excelled, became the executive chef for a Hilton property, and was accepted into the bachelor's program at Johnson and Wales.

But the felony record followed him. Before Hilton, he received conditional offers from "dozens of jobs," only for each one to evaporate after a background check. That pattern pushed him to start Extra Mile Power Washing. "It put me back in control," he said. And that control freed him to disappear for a month after Hurricane Harvey, where Mercy Chefs served over 100,000 meals in Texas. "Had I been working a job instead of owning my own company, I could never have put everything on hold. Some customer service slipped — but it was a cost I was willing to accept to serve others."

The Numbers Behind Hiring Convicted Felons

The Justice Department reports roughly 2.3 million Americans are incarcerated at any given time, with over 600,000 released every year. Many more carry felony convictions without ever serving time. Meanwhile, national unemployment hovers near historic lows — making it harder than ever to find capable workers. Yet the unemployment rate among formerly incarcerated people sits around 27%, higher than the worst point of the Great Depression, according to the Prison Policy Initiative.

Research consistently shows that ex-offenders who find steady employment reoffend at far lower rates. Hiring convicted felons is a practical workforce strategy, not just a charitable gesture.

Why Cleaning Contractors Hire From This Pool

• Loyalty and work ethic. They know their opportunities are limited. When someone gives them a real shot, they tend to repay it with effort and consistency — two things this industry always needs more of.
• Skills gained during incarceration. Vocational training, GEDs, and even college degrees are common. That translates into workers who can learn pressure washing equipment operation or water fed cleaning systems faster than you'd expect.
• Retention. They know the next job won't come easy. Once hired, they are far less likely to quit over a minor grievance.
• Tax incentives. The federal Work Opportunity Tax Credit can return 25% to 40% of a new hire's first-year wages if they qualify. That is real money on a crew position.

How to Make It Work — and What to Watch For

None of this means every hire from this pool will be a success. Some will revert. But a blanket "no felons" policy eliminates a large segment of the available workforce at a time when most window cleaning and exterior cleaning companies struggle to fill crews.

Johnny C. Taylor, Jr., president of SHRM, recommends evaluating three things: whether the conviction is job-related, the severity of the offense, and how much time has passed since the sentence was completed. "A criminal record should never be viewed as an automatic disqualification for employment," Taylor stated.

For residential contractors, practical steps include running background checks (still do them — just read the results instead of auto-rejecting), starting new hires on commercial work before moving them to residential routes, and pairing them with experienced crew leads who can evaluate performance firsthand.

The "gift of second chances" runs both directions. Dustin Force's story makes that clear. The same industry that gave him a path forward now benefits from an owner-operator who shows up, serves others, and does the work.