Can We Close the Revolving Door?: Recidivism vs. Employment of Ex-Offenders in the U.S.

Freeman, Richard

doi:10.1037/e717762011-001

Cited by 43 publications

(57 citation statements)

References 3 publications

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“…These rates, of course, reflect incarceration at any point in time. Among those who are not currently incarcerated, Freeman (2003) estimates that 22 percent of all Black men have been previously incarcerated-which suggests that, among the younger cohorts, the rates might reach 30 percent or more.…”

Section: Incarceration and Child Support: Potential Effects And Empirmentioning

confidence: 95%

Declining employment among young black less-educated men: The role of incarceration and child support

Holzer

Offner

Sorensen

2005

J. Pol. Anal. Manage.

143

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In this paper, we explore the continuing decline in employment and labor force participation of nonenrolled Black men between the ages of 16 and 34 who have a high school education or less in the 1980s and 1990s. We focus on two fairly new developments: (1) the dramatic growth in the number of young Black men who have been incarcerated and (2) strengthened enforcement of child support policies. We analyze micro-level data from the Current Population Survey Outgoing Rotation Groups (CPS-ORG), into which state-level data over time on incarceration rates and child support enforcement have been merged. Our results indicate that previous incarceration and child support enforcement can account for half or more of the decline in employment activity among Black men aged 25-34. Previous incarceration also contributes to the decline among those aged 16-24. © 2005 by the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management

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Section: Incarceration and Child Support: Potential Effects And Empirmentioning

confidence: 95%

Declining employment among young black less-educated men: The role of incarceration and child support

Holzer

Offner

Sorensen

2005

J. Pol. Anal. Manage.

143

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…One of the leading explanations for this development is the steep rise in incarceration of young black males. Freeman (2003) estimated that roughly 20 percent of the black male population is incarcerated. In addition to the obvious incapacitating effect of current incarceration, even previous incarceration can have a negative effect on labor force activity.…”

Section: Black Menmentioning

confidence: 99%

Labor force participation: what has happened since the peak?

Hipple¹

2016

MLR

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Summary of the Main ResultsSince the final quarter of 2007, the labor force participation rate has fallen from 65.9 percent to 62.8 percent in the second quarter of 2014, a decline of 3.1 percentage points. In this report, the Council of Economic Advisers estimates that this 3.1 percentage point decline can be attributed to three main sources:About half of the decline (1.6 percentage point) is due to the aging of the population.Because older individuals participate in the labor force at lower rates than younger workers, the aging of the population exerts downward pressure on the overall labor force participation rate. While older workers today are participating in the labor force at higher rates than older workers of previous generations, there is still a very large drop-off in participation when workers enter their early 60s. About a sixth of the decline in the overall participation rate (0.5 percentage point) is a cyclical decline in line with historical patterns in previous recessions.While the unemployment rate has come down from a peak of 10.0 percent in October 2009 to 6.1 percent in June 2014, it has remained elevated for the last several years. Historically, elevation in the unemployment rate is associated with a decline in labor force participation, as potential workers may decide to defer looking for a job until the economy improves. A portion of the most recent decline in the participation rate reflects this historical pattern, which this report refers to as the "cyclical" effect. About a third of the decline (1.0 percentage point) arises from other factors, which may include trends that pre-date the Great Recession and consequences of the unique severity of the Great Recession.In particular the two elements of this "residual" not explained by the standard factors are: The fact that participation rates conditional on age were declining for many groups in the run-up to 2008, including for prime-age men from the 1950s and for prime-age women from the late 1990s, may also have contributed to the decline in participation. This would have been expected to result in a decline in the participation rate above and beyond the pure aging effect even in the absence of a recession. Note, these effects were partly offset by other pre-existing trends, like a rise in the participation rate for older workers. The severity of the Great Recession, which has resulted in an unusual pattern of a very large share of long-term unemployed relative to total unemployment, may have lowered the participation rate more than would have been expected through normal channels. In fact, we find that a declining participation rate is historically correlated with the elevation of long-term unemployment, suggesting that both issues have a common cause or cause each other.

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“…In a study on employers' attitudes towards the employability of ex-prisoners compared to other disadvantaged groups, only applicants with psychiatric disabilities were considered less employable than applicants with a forensic history (Graffam, Shinkfield, Lavelle, & Hardcastle, 2004). This is particularly troubling because the mentally ill population overlaps with the ex-prisoner population; 10-16% of inmates have been diagnosed or report themselves as mentally ill (Freeman, 2003). In addition to their criminal history, ex-prisoners are at a disadvantage in the job market due to their lower educational attainment.…”

Section: Challenges Facing Released Prisonersmentioning

confidence: 98%

“…One-third of the prison population is released from correctional institutions annually (Freeman, 2003). Unfortunately, ex-inmates' chances of returning to prison after being released are extremely high due to their lack of human capital and instability upon release.…”

Section: Challenges Facing Released Prisonersmentioning

confidence: 99%