Can Employers Play a More Positive Role in Prisoner Reentry?

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.

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I. Introduction

Over 600,000 prisoners are now being released annually, and the total number of exprisoners currently in the population is estimated to be 3 million or higher (Uggen, Thompson, and Manza 2001). Of the many challenges that these (mostly) men face, those posed by reentry into the labor market may be among the most severe.

One of the major causes of these difficulties in the labor market is the aversion that most employers have toward hiring ex-offenders. How severe is this aversion? What are its causes? Are employer attitudes and hiring behavior amenable to change under various circumstances, such as tight labor markets, or in response to activities by community agencies or other institutions?

We explore these questions below. We begin by reviewing what is known about employer hiring behavior in the low-wage labor market, and especially the factors that might be relevant to the hiring of ex-offenders. Next we consider some specific findings about employers and ex-offenders from research on survey data. We then review some policy options, and the extent to which evaluation research gives us some guidance on what might potentially be successful interventions. Finally, we conclude with some general observations.

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

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.

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