Page 46 - Impact: Collected Essays on the Threat of Economic Inequality

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President Johnson then talked about the steps his administration had taken to help address these issues . Here, he mentioned the passage of the Prisoner Rehabilitation Act in 1965, which he described as “the most significant legislative reform in modern American penology .”51 He focused on employment . He stated that as a result of this Act, “hundreds of prisoners already are working in daytime jobs as they finish their sentences at night...[l]earning job skills that will bring dignity to themselves and support to their families .”52 Later in his message, President Johnson called for reexamination of “the policies of all federal departments and agencies regarding the hiring of released ‘good risk’ offenders,” and “urge[d] the states, local governments and private industry to do the same .”53
Fifty years later, the employment prospects and economic mobility for individuals who have exited U .S . prisons or otherwise have criminal records are dismal . A well-regarded analysis found that through forty-eight years of age, incarceration reduces the lifetime earnings of formerly incarcerated White men by 52 percent, Latino men by 41 percent, and Black men by 37 percent .54 The “lost earnings associated with incarceration” equal 9 percent of total Black male earnings, 6 percent of total Latino male earnings, and 2 percent of total White male earnings .55
Those with criminal records must confront the collateral consequences that attach to each and every criminal conviction in the U .S . (obviously in varying degrees based upon type and classification of crime) . These consequences reach into the tens of thousands, the majority of which apply to employment .56 Criminal convictions bar individuals from numerous professions . Also, licensing authorities have vast discretion to determine whether or not to issue job-related licenses to individuals with criminal records .57
In addition to the legal restrictions, private employers simply do not like to hire individuals with criminal records . They particularly do not like to hire Black men who have criminal records . While criminal records reduce employment opportunities significantly for all who have one, they have particular impact on Black men looking for work.58 One study has found that an arrest
51 Id.
52 Id.
53 Id.
54 pew chariTaBle TrusTs, collaTeral cosTs: incarceraTion’s effecT on economic moBiliTy 12, tbl.1 (2010), available at http://www.pewtrusts.org/~/media/legacy/uploadedfiles/pcs_assets/2010/CollateralCosts1pdf.pdf.
55 Id.
56 See Amy L. Solomon, In Search of a Job: Criminal Records as Barriers to Employment, 2012 naT’l insT. JusT. J. 42, 44 (the American Bar Association, as part of an effort to collect the various collateral consequences rooted in federal and state laws, at one point identified over 38,000 consequences, 80 percent of which involved employment).
57 Michael Pinard, Collateral Consequences of Criminal Convictions: Confronting Issues of Race and Dignity, 85 n.y.u. l. rev. 492-93 (2010) (“Scores of jobs require occupational licenses, and state and municipal licensing agencies often have authority to conduct background checks with discretion to deny licenses based on an applicant’s criminal history.”)
58 E.g., devah pager, marked: race, crime and finding work in an era of mass incarceraTion 58-59 (2001) (Milwaukee study found that criminal record reduced callbacks by 50 percent for White testers and 60 percent for Black testers); Devah Pager et al., Sequencing Disadvantage: Barriers to Employment Facing Young Black and White Men with Criminal Records, 623 Am. Acad. Political & Soc. Sci. 195, 199 (2009) (New York City study found that criminal record reduced callback or job offer for White men by 30 percent and for Black men by 60 percent).
Impact: Collected Essays on the Threat of Economic Inequality