Deeply Rooted Problems For Ex-Inmates In The Workforce

Activists were engaged in various Ban The Box activism actions.

Some savvy members of the American public are aware of the difficulties that ex-inmates can have in obtaining a job after serving their terms in prison. There have been movements in the last few years to remove the box, the one that you check in response to whether you have ever been incarcerated. That box can lead to a huge barrier in being able to find work, and then a reversion to illegal ways of obtaining food, clothing, and shelter, and finally the door revolving back to imprisonment. This doesn't invariably occur for everyone who has served time, but overcoming these barriers does make life after prison quite difficult.



Recently, the UCLA LABOR CENTER, in collaboration with the UCLA INSTITUTE FOR RESEARCH ON LABOR AND EMPLOYMENT, and A NEW WAY OF LIFE REENTRY PROJECT, issued a report, Get To Work Or Go To Jail: Workplace Rights Under Threat, that went beyond the discussion of the difficulties faced by former inmates in obtaining work and discussed the role of the parole system in adding to these difficulties. Because of the threats of returning to prison, ex-inmates, those on probation or parole, or even those under various court orders regarding repayment of debts or spousal/child support, can feel forced to remain in bad jobs; take any job offered to them, no matter how exploitive; or unable to challenge exploitive or questionable workplace practices. In essence, it keeps people who have found themselves in these circumstances imprisoned and in lock step in order to stay out of prison.

Among the findings noted in the report include: *About 5 million Americans and 400,000 Californians are on some type of probation or parole. *Many of these laborers have lost access to
standard labor protections, such as minimum wage and workers compensation. *On any one day, about 9,000 individuals are returned to prison for violating the parole or probation requirement to remain employed. *Each year in Los Angeles alone, 50,000 to 100,000 people are required to perform unpaid court-ordered community service. Some of those who are under some kind of court order regarding debt repayment work hundreds of hours of unpaid community service, equaling several months of fulltime work. *African-Americans or Latinos/as comprise approximately 2/3 of those incarcerated for violating conditions of parole or probation related to work or debt. *95% of fathers who were incarcerated for failure to pay child support had been employed. Of these employed men, 85% had earnings at, or below, the poverty level.

Trainees benefit from Southwest Carpenters Trainee Fund.

As can be seen, many of those who return to the work force after prison continue working at low levels of income. Yet the expectations of parole and probation can be so high that many cannot meet them, particularly if those individuals lose those jobs. Thinking back to how many people were adversely affected by the recession, one can see that high numbers of ex-inmates had even more difficult issues. And the ones most affected were members of minority groups and low income workers.

A criminal justice symposium aids in access to information about challenges ex-prisoners face.

Thanks to information from this article by Peter Theony on UCLA Labor Center: http://www.labor.ucla.edu/publication/get-to-work-or-go-to-jail/; and the above links.

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