Devah Pager’s book Marked: Race, Crime, and Finding Work in an Era of Mass Incarceration researches the effects of mass incarceration and the consequences of having a criminal record in today's American labor market. Through her research conducted in Milwaukee, Pager demonstrates that the probability of ex-offenders obtaining legitimate work is extremely low. And when one factors race into this equation, the chances are even more improbable. Not a good sign for the 2 million currently incarcerated people looking to one day rejoin the labor market.
The findings in Pager’s book highlight the continuing significance of race in employment decisions. The interaction between race and criminal record suggests that black ex-offenders face an intensification of stigma above and beyond the simple negative effects of either race or criminal record alone. Already burdened by a disproportionate representation in prison, blacks carry the added weight of compounding stigma. The combination of race and criminal record creates barriers to employment that in many contexts appear almost impossible to overcome.
Throughout this semester I've been amazed at just how prevalent race is in every social situation. Class, privilege, incarceration, school funding, income level, self-fulfilling education prophecies, types of parenting styles, etc. I've looked back at my blogs from throughout the semester and there is not one aspect of society I've covered that it is not touched by race and privileging the majority. Not one. To me, this class is a clear indicator and a wake-up-call to tell me that racism is not by any means conquered or dead. In the video below, it is apparent that many people believe America is now a "post racial" country, since Obama is president. Maybe equality is closer for the public, but as far as individual, specific rights for all people from different races, we still have a ways to go.
Pager’s analysis suggests that blacks with no criminal record had about the same chance as white ex-offenders just out of prison. Therefore, many offenders (of both races) end up living in poverty or are compelled to return to crime if they can't find a more legitimate job.
In the United States, more than 2 million individuals are currently incarcerated, with an additional 4.9 million individuals under criminal justice supervision through probation and parole. The rhetoric of neoliberalism has rejected any understanding of crime as an effect of poverty and social circumstances- replacing it with what Pager calls the “formalization of moral order’”. This must be ignorance on our part, to not take into consideration that life circumstances, such as poor education and lack of community support, played a part in putting some of those 2 million men and women in jail. We are at fault as a nation for some of those individuals' incarcerations. If more of our tax dollars were going to give them the right support while they're being educated in under-funded schools and lower social classes, we could save the money we spend keeping them housed, clothed and fed in jail.
Pager also identifies three elements that foster inequality in employment for ex-offenders: 1) selection effects assumes that employment difficulties pre-exist incarceration and that they don't want to work; 2) transformation contends that the experience of incarceration alters an individual in ways that prevent them from entering the labour market; and 3) the stigma of incarceration amounts to a form of negative credentialing in a credential society, which poses barriers to employment.
The finding that ex-offenders are one-half to two-thirds as likely as equally qualified non-offenders to be considered by employers is evidence of the barriers to employment imposed by a criminal record. Like a GED or an occupational license, the negative credential of a criminal record provides an official marker of status and suitability for employment that can be used as an easy screening mechanism by employers. Currently, most employees are allowed to ask if job interviewees have ever been incarcerated. And convicted criminals are not a protected class in anti-discrimination cases. Pager’s study also finds that black ex-offenders may be doubly disadvantaged.
The implications of Pager’s study suggest that a large and growing population of ex-offenders is unable to secure even the most basic kinds of low-wage work, such as construction, yard and house work. With incarceration rates increasing exponentially and more than 650,000 ex-offenders returning from prison each year, the existing problems of prisoner re-entry into the work force will likely amplify with time.
The social costs of high unemployment among this group – along with the additional burdens to families, communities, and public agencies – are cause for serious public concern. Although, it is unreasonable to assume that employers will hire ex-offenders solely in the interests of the public good. If there isn't a law requiring them to hire ex-convicts or banning them from asking about criminal backgrounds, they'll probably be drawn to hiring people with clean records, who won't be as big of a threat for the cost of theft and potential liability for harm to their customers from their employees. Market forces alone are clearly insufficient to manage the problems of prisoner re-entry.
After a class discussion I believe that the basic premise of Pager’s work, that a criminal record hinders labor market opportunities, is not in itself a new idea. What is new about her research is its linkage to the trend towards mass incarceration. Pager’s book is a scathing critique of ‘crime control’ policies, starting in 1970 with Nixon's war on crime, that contribute to a cycle of criminal involvement and victimization, and diminishes the very idea of the criminal justice system's effectiveness. Ultimately mass incarceration, without even looking at its racial inequalities, harms everyone, due to its effects on the labor market and the economy.
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