When I was a paint room foreman my crew was almost entirely made up of parolees working out of a halfway house and they were the best crew in the shop.
So your employer hired parolees without understanding his liability and neither did you? Got it.
Here’s a clue, go back and read my original comment if you can screw up the courage to do it.
You never know when the guy who wrote a bad check is going to go on a killing spree. LOL