Doing Time and the Unemployment Line: The Impact of Incarceration on Ex-Inmates’ Employment Outcomes

Abstract

This study measures the influence multiple incarcerations and age at first incarceration have on the lengths of time ex-inmates are not employed and the amount of time ex-inmates spend looking for employment. Fixed effects analyses of longitudinal data from the Rochester Youth Development Study (RYDS) finds a relationship between incarceration at younger ages and longer non-employment experiences, but no association between incarcerations between 23 – 32 years old and non-employment lengths. Meanwhile, these individuals who experience incarceration younger spend equivalent time looking for employment as their never-incarcerated peers, despite having nonequivalent periods without employment.

Perpetrators at First, Victims at Last: Exploring the Consequences of Stigmatization on Ex-Convicts’ Mental Well-Being

“…Prevailing prison studies have lamented at the limited evidence concerning the consequences of incarceration on inmates' life postprison (Apel & Sweeten, 2010;Emmert, 2019;Mitchell et al, 2017). Ghana, which was ranked 33rd in the world, sixth in Africa, and the most incarcerated country in West Africa (54 per 100,000 resident) in 2013 (Walmsley, 2013), is arguably in dire need of such empirical evidence to develop its future correctional policies, particularly in relation to incarceration, recidivism, rehabilitation, as well as reentry and postrelease services.…”

Criminal history and employment: an interdisciplinary literature synthesis

“…To the extent that willingness to hire is affected by a host of dynamic attributional processes, perceived age of applicants and age at the time of offense could affect how much culpability an employer assigns to younger job applicants. In other words, younger persons may fare better than older applicants, as there is more likelihood that a manager will make benevolent attributions about criminal activity to youthful indiscretions (Emmert, 2018;Griffith and Jones Young, 2017). However, several analyses of the effects of age on recidivism show that older people present an overall lower reoffense risk profile than their younger counterparts (Hunt and Easley, 2017;Uggen, 2000).…”

“…A few of the studies focused on populations with varying employment statuses over the course of prolonged follow-up periods (e.g. Curcio and Pattavina, 2018;Emmert, 2018;Lockwood et al, 2016). Similar to the studies that addressed the employer perspective, consistency of terminology was a concern, as articles differed in operationalization of key terms, including criminal record (e.g.…”

“…Likewise, findings on the effects of offense during adolescence and young adulthood suggest that serious delinquency is associated with lower employment rates (Carter, 2018). However, adolescent offenses showed a reduced, and at times minimal, impact on employment later in adulthood (Emmert, 2018;Jung, 2015). In some cases, incarceration even had a short-term positive association with employment rates, immediately following release (e.g.…”