Welcome to America, where 2.3 million people are locked up, and each year 600,000 of those individuals will be coming home, often to communities near you. For the most part, they will leave prison uneducated, unskilled, unprepared, and angry at having spent years locked away in a warehouse. This is the legacy of the law-and-order movement and the prison boom of the 1990s: America is in the midst of an incarceration and post incarceration crisis.
This series of diary entries will:
(1) focus on the roots of this crisis
(2) argue that the current environment makes reform of American correctional policy more possible than it has been in years
(3) explain the need for federal involvement re state correctional policies
(4) explain how strategies related to building human capital and employability of incarcerated individuals can help remedy the current situation
(5) explain why federal efforts on employment of ex-offenders have failed and
(6) propose a series of national reforms
Link to Part I
PART II: Employment & the Post Incarceration Crisis
Although employment is only one component of an overall strategy for facilitating reentry and reducing recidivism, it plays a critical role in improving the outcomes of individuals leaving prisons. In order to better understand the relationship between incarceration and employment, it is helpful to examine the employment landscape both before and after prison.
The pre-arrest population is already at a disadvantage, characterized by low levels of education, high rates of unemployment, drug abuse, physical and mental health problems, and an erratic work history. When this same population exits prison, the difficulties increase, rendering ex-convicts a "significantly disadvantaged subset of an already-disadvantaged workforce." Although credible, empirical evidence on the matter is quite mixed, "the preponderance of it points to negative effects of incarceration on the subsequent employment and earnings of offenders."
A number of studies have suggested these negative effects, specifically, include a drop in hourly wages, decreased annual earnings, movement from full-time to part-time or temporary work, and forced transition into a secondary labor market.
The collateral impacts of incarceration, particularly as relate to employment, are even more acutely felt by certain groups and in certain communities. While the unemployment rate among ex-convicts as a group has been estimated as high as 40%, the rate among black men with a criminal record is possibly twice as high: a staggering 80%.
Although some studies suggest that up to 60% of employers claim that they are willing to hire ex-offenders, the actual hiring decisions by managers provide far more valuable evidence of employer attitudes than can be gleaned from survey questions.
In some cities, like Milwaukee, black job seekers with a criminal record stood only a 5% chance of landing an interview for any job which they applied. The same can be seen in Chicago, and other urban areas of the country, where men with criminal records – even non violent offenders - make up an underclass that is all but excluded from the primary labor market. The result is not surprising: In these communities, the universe of labor-market opportunities is incredibly limited. Informal, temporary work – like odd jobs and day labor – represents a primary source of employment. Unfortunately, the informal labor market does not provide the type of structure, stable environment, wage growth, and long-term personal relationships that facilitate reentry into mainstream, non-criminal society.
Although finding legitimate employment is often cited as a top priority of individuals leaving prison, it is one of the most infrequently realized goals. This failure comes with substantial consequences: the longer an individual remains out of prison but unemployed, the more likely he is to reoffend. The logic is simple. Some 35% of ex-offenders engaged in illegal activities before prison as a means of generating income.
With even bleaker economic and employment prospects awaiting them upon their release from prison, it is no surprise that many of these individuals turn to illegal means of generating income. In effect, we have created a system where it is easier to go back to prison than it is to find a legitimate job. Perhaps this explains why more than 2/3 of those released from prison will be re-arrested within three years.
In light of the correlation that exists between employment and reduced rates of recidivism , it is not surprising that a number of stakeholders – including both state-level elected officials and non-profit organizations – have increasingly focused on using employment as a means of fostering "full and legal participation in the community". It will, however, require bold national leadership to address the post-incarceration crisis that are facing America.
Federal leadership in improving the employment prospects of those leaving prisons should be a significant part of any prison reform agenda. With the passage of the Second Chance Act, the election of Barack Obama, and the recent comments of Senator Webb, such leadership seems possible. National-level policymakers must realize, however, that addressing the post-incarceration crisis through improving employment options for ex-offenders will require far more than the traditional employer-side incentives that have generally yielded unimpressive results.