Each year, more than 600,000 people are released from prison and seek to rejoin their communities. The obstacles to successful reentry are daunting, starting with the challenge of finding stable work. Indeed, two-thirds of released prisoners are rearrested, and half are reincarcerated within three years. In recognition of the enormous human and financial toll of recidivism, there is new interest among researchers, community advocates, and public officials in prisoner reentry initiatives, particularly those focused on employment.
What’s the Relationship Between Crime and Employment?
Although the relationship between crime and employment is complex, most experts seem to agree on a few things. First, a large proportion of former prisoners have low levels of education and work experience, health problems, and other personal characteristics that make them hard to employ, particularly in a labor market that offers fewer and fewer well-paying opportunities for individuals who lack postsecondary education. For example, 40 percent of inmates in state and federal prisons have neither a high school diploma nor a GED, 31 percent of state inmates have a “physical impairment or mental condition,” and 57 percent report that they used drugs in the month before their arrest.[1]
Second, the increase in incarceration over the past 25 years has disproportionately affected African-American men. One study found that, among black men born between 1965 and 1969, 30 percent of those without a college education and a startling 60 percent of high school dropouts had served time in prison by 1999.[2] Several recent studies have documented the labor market struggles of African-American men even during the 1990s boom[3] and the persistent discrimination they face in the job market.[4]
Third, while it is very difficult to isolate the impact of incarceration on labor market outcomes, several studies have found that earnings — and possibly employment as well — are lower for individuals who have spent time in prison than for similar individuals who have not.[5] This is not surprising, since convicted felons are legally barred from certain occupations (including many in fast-growing sectors) and because employers are very reluctant to hire them.[6]
In sum, many people enter the criminal justice system hard to employ and leave it even harder to employ. Not surprisingly, employment rates for ex-prisoners are typically low. For example, in a survey of male prisoners returning to Chicago, only 44 percent reported that they worked for at least a week in the first four to eight months following their release from prison, and many of those who worked did not work full time.[7]
What Does Research Say About Employment Programs for Ex-Prisoners?
Of course, the fact that ex-prisoners tend to struggle in the labor market and frequently end up back in prison does not necessarily mean that employment will reduce recidivism. And while the recent policy interest in helping reentering prisoners is encouraging, it is easy to overlook the fact that we know very little about what works in improving reentry outcomes. There have been few rigorous studies of employment-focused reentry models, and there is a pressing need for more definitive evidence of what works. A meta-analysis of eight random assignment design studies of postrelease community-based programs found that they did not reduce recidivism. There are only a few experimental studies on the effects of in-prison services, and it is hard to draw lessons from the nonexperimental research. Many experts believe that the most promising reentry models provide coordinated services both before and after inmates are released. There have been a few studies of such models to date, including two that used random assignment; the results were only somewhat positive.
It is clearly difficult to increase employment and earnings for disadvantaged men. Yet the results described above do not support the view that “nothing works.” Some programs seem to be modestly successful: those for older ex-prisoners, integrated services both before and after release, and perhaps models using financial incentives.
Ongoing MDRC Studies of Employment Programs for Ex-Prisoners
Clearly, any discussion of “what we know” — about anything — hinges on the standard of evidence applied. Many experts in the reentry field have argued that motivation plays a critical role in success for both individuals and programs.[8] This certainly seems plausible, and probably applies in other fields as well. But, if success is strongly associated with motivation, it is hard to put much stock in studies that attempt to measure program impacts by comparing outcomes for people who choose to participate in employment programs with outcomes for those who don’t. After all, it is easy to control for criminal history, age, or education level, but very difficult to measure or control for motivation. That’s why random assignment studies, which assign participants with similar characteristics (including motivation) into program and control groups, are so important.
MDRC is currently conducting two random assignment studies of employment programs for ex-prisoners:
For more information, read Employment-Focused Programs for Ex-Prisoners: What Have We Learned, What Are We Learning, and Where Should We Go from Here? by Dan Bloom, from which this Issue Focus was adapted.
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