A RECENT REPORT from the Public Policy Institute of California found that many formerly incarcerated Californians struggle to find and keep jobs after release, highlighting employment as a major barrier to successful reentry.
On Thursday, the Public Policy Institute of California, where policymakers have long sought to promote employment among released prisoners through policies and programs that reduce incarceration and broaden access to the labor market, held a webinar covering their policy brief on “Employment Before, During, and After Prison in California.”
Heather Harris, a research fellow at the Public Policy Institute, led the virtual event and presented findings from the institute’s recent report and answered questions from the audience.
“The idea here is that if finding and keeping a job after prison can reduce criminal behavior — policymakers need to know what promotes employment after prison,” Harris said.
The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation partnered with the institute in their research efforts, offering information on people that were released from California prisons between 2015 and 2019, including the jobs they held before prison and the jobs they held after release.
The institute also retrieved data from the California Department of Justice to aid their estimation of how much incarceration contributes to unemployment. Harris explained that nearly half — 45 percent of people were unemployed the four years before prison, during prison and the four years after. About 22 percent had only worked while in prison, and 23 percent of people had never worked. Inmates were always less likely to be employed after being released from prison.
However, people that were self-employed or participated in gig-work or under the table arrangements were not included in this data.
“Because people with criminal records are often challenged in the labor market, many of them do work under the table,” said Harris. “This is especially true in California.”
The idea here is that if finding and keeping a job after prison can reduce criminal behavior — policymakers need to know what promotes employment after prison.
Heather Harris, research fellow at the Public Policy Institute
According to Harris, this is because California has twice as many regulations as the national average that create barriers to employment for people with criminal records.
Even when people are employed after their release from prison, it is mostly in low-wage industries that demand “low-skill” training, the study found.
“And we see a pretty deep dependence on temporary work … that gets deeper after prison,” said Harris.
Men were found to be more reliant on temporary work than women. Very few released prisoners earned above that poverty threshold in any year.
Training, incentives offer path forward
One positive program involves inmates who are trained to become firefighters.
“California’s released prisoners also have opportunities to become camp firefighters,” said Harris, adding that most of these jobs require high skills. “It sets California apart from other state prison systems.”
In addition, people that received training or partook in any job skills program while in prison were more likely to be employed post-incarceration.
And when addressing what the state can do to combat these issues, Harris suggested incentivizing employers to hire people with criminal records.
Harris said, “… create programs that incentivize employers to hire people with criminal records.”
In conclusion, the study found that criminal records will continue to hamper job prospects for people.
“I do think that incarceration associated with arrest is going to remain a major factor in why people have difficulty finding and keeping work,” she said. “But it’s going to be less relevant in future cohorts.”
And I think this because prior PPIC research has shown that arrest rates and jail population levels have been lower in the wake of the pandemic than they were during this pre-pandemic time frame.” PPIC’s data on pre and post incarcerated people’s employment grim, but hopeful.
