Bondsmen: Fidelity from the Frat

It may be prudent for employers to avoid hiring ex-convicts, but it is hard on the ex-cons. Even a one-time loser who wants to go straight can find him self wandering from employment office to employment office, gradually realizing that the only trade he is eligible to follow is crime. But now, in Washington, B.C., a group of former convicts is offering a solution: it runs an employ ment agency that places ex-cons only.

Known as Bonabond, the 14-month-old agency was formed primarily to aid former offenders from whom pro spective employers demanded...