From Prison to Work

The nonpartisan Urban Institute publishes studies, reports, and books on timely topics worthy of public consideration. The views expressed are those of the authors and should not be attributed to the Urban Institute, its trustees, or its funders.

Note: This report is available in its entirety in the Portable Document Format (PDF).

INTRODUCTION

The transition from prison to the community is not a new phenomenon. The vast majority of prisoners are released to society and face the challenges of adjusting to the freedom, temptations, responsibilities, and struggles of the street. What has changed, however, is the scale of prisoner reentry—more than 630,000 prisoners now return home each year, four times the number that came home 25 years ago (Harrison and Karberg 2004; Hughes and Wilson 2002; Travis and Lawrence 2002). The impact of the increased number of annual releasees is amplified even further because prisoners are spending longer periods of time incarcerated and have diminishing access to education and training programs that could assist in their transition upon release (Lynch and Sabol 2001). Over the past decade, a greater proportion of inmates have been released without post-prison supervision and without services to assist them with finding jobs, housing, and needed support services (Petersilia 2003). Finally, disproportionately large numbers of prisoners are released to a relatively small number of communities that are already challenged by high unemployment and poverty rates, few job opportunities, crime, and gang activity (Lynch and Sabol 2001; La Vigne, Kachnowski, et. al 2003, La Vigne, Mamalian, et. al 2003, La Vigne, Thomson, et. al 2003, Visher, La Vigne, and Travis 2004). Thus, individuals are released from prison with the need to reestablish themselves in the community, but are often released into environments that are ill-prepared to support a positive transition and full of risks and challenges.

The criminal justice literature indicates that people released from prison often continue their involvement with the criminal justice system. The Bureau of Justice Statistics completed two recidivism studies on prisoners released in 1983 and in 1994. Both studies revealed that approximately two-thirds of those released (62.5 percent for the 1983 cohort and 67.5 percent for the 1994 cohort) were subsequently rearrested within three years of release (Beck and Shipley 1989; Langan and Levin 2002). These rearrests generate significant fiscal costs for the criminal justice system, human costs in terms of victimization, and costs with respect to public support—a growing public sentiment that the criminal justice system does not work to control crime. Changes to existing policy and practice showing even modest improvements over the current state of affairs have the potential to transform the way in which the phenomenon of prisoner reentry impacts society. Rather than draining community resources, safety, and morale, prisoners who return to the community with support systems in place can become productive members of society, thus saving resources, strengthening family and community ties, and expanding the labor force and economy.

The challenges and opportunities of prisoner reentry raise important questions about what can be done to better serve prisoners, their families, their communities, and society at large as we face released prisoners' inevitable return home. How can we boost the odds of successful reintegration? How can we reduce the known risks that have historically thwarted that goal? How can policies and practices be improved in the short-term?

In an effort to address these important questions, the Urban Institute has invited academics, practitioners, policymakers, service providers, former prisoners, and community leaders to participate in a series of Reentry Roundtable discussions to assess the state of knowledge surrounding various dimensions of reentry, including substance abuse, race, gender, health, housing, the role of civil institutions, and the impact of reentry on communities and families. The fifth Roundtable, held in May 2003, focused on policies, practices, problems, and incentives involved in connecting returning prisoners to meaningful employment. Five discussion papers and four presentations were commissioned and, combined with the discussions that came out of the Roundtable and additional literature from the field, form the conceptual framework for this report. Much of the content of this monograph is derived directly from these papers.

Discussion papers commissioned by the Reentry Roundtable

• "Can We Close the Revolving Door," by Richard B. Freeman, Harvard University
• "Crime, Work, and Reentry," by Anne Piehl, Harvard University.
• "Employment Barriers Facing Ex-Offenders," by Harry Holzer, Georgetown University; Steven Raphael, University of California at Berkeley; and Michael A .Stoll, University of California at Los Angeles
• "Can Inmates Become an Integral Part of the U.S. Workforce," by Knut A. Rostad, The Enterprise Prison Institute, and Rob Atkinson, The Progressive Policy Institute
• "Reentry and Prison Work Programs," by Shawn Bushway, The University of Maryland

Reentry Roundtable papers available at http://www.urban.org

Presentations for the Reentry Roundtable

• "Where Is the Economy Headed over Time and How Will the Prison Population Be Affected?" by David Ellwood, Harvard University
• "Reality Check: Employment Challenges and Successes," by Robert Carmona, STRIVE
• "From Prison to Work: Applying Lessons from Welfare Reform," by Rodney Carroll, Welfare to Work Partnership
• "From Prison to Work: Applying Lessons from Welfare Reform," by Peter Cove, America Works

The aim of this monograph is to highlight relevant research and identify key policy issues. The report first addresses the relationship between work and reentry, outlining the links between gainful employment and individual, familial, community, and societal outcomes once prisoners are on the outside. Next the monograph describes the current labor market, identifying the gap that former prisoners could potentially fill when they enter or return to the work force. The focus then shifts to explore the skill sets, education levels, work histories, and health-related needs of returning prisoners. With this understanding of the population, the report examines the past and current state of work inside state and federal prisons. In this section, the report identifies the potential benefits of various types of inmate labor as well as prison programming aimed at enhancing employment opportunities upon release. The monograph then looks at the opportunities for as well as the legal barriers to work on the outside. This section draws upon the lessons learned from three effective employment programs, highlighting the importance of links between work on the inside and outside. Finally, the document identifies key considerations to meet the goals of enhancing work opportunities available to prisoners and expanding work opportunities after release.

Note: This report is available in its entirety in the Portable Document Format (PDF).

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