Fair Chance Hiring: Reducing Criminal Record Barriers to Employment - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Fair Chance Hiring: Reducing Criminal Record Barriers to Employment

• Dr. David Kirk

UT Department of Sociology and Population Research Center

UT Opportunity Forum November 14, 2014

100,000 200,000 300,000 400,000 500,000 600,000 700,000 800,000 1977 1979 1981 1983 1985 1987 1989 1991 1993 1995 1997 1999 2001 2003 2005 2007 2009 2011 2013

Number of Releases Prison Releases

U.S Prison Releases, 1977 - 2013

U.S. (excl. TX) Texas

• 623,000 released from prison each year
• 850,000 on parole; 4M on probation
• An estimated 70M to 100M persons have a criminal

record in the US

U.S.:

• 74,000 released from prison each year
• 85,000 on parole
• 162K on felony probation, 96K on misd. probation
• 12M with a criminal record

Texas:

• 2,400 released from prison each year
• 2,800 on parole
• 16,000 on probation

Local: The data reveals…

Disparate Impact

500 1,000 1,500 2,000 2,500 3,000 Black (Non-Hisp) Hispanic White (Non-Hisp)

U.S. Male Imprisonment Rate 2013 (per 100,000 population)

Source: Bureau of Justice Statistics (http://www.bjs.gov/index.cfm?ty=nps)

The data on spending reveals…

• We spend $3.15 billion each year in Texas on TDCJ, which

equates to almost $21,000 per prisoner per year.

– By comparison, the federal poverty threshold for a single member household is $11,670.

• State funding for probation: $300 million.
• State funding for parole: $177 million.
• Local funding for APD: $369 million.

The data on arrest reveals…

According to Austin Police Department arrest data archived on the Krimelabb website:

• Approximately 24,000 different individuals have been arrested in

Austin so far in 2014 (through the end of September)

• 53% of these 2014 arrestees are repeat offenders, and have

been arrested at least one other time in Austin since 2007.

• Of the individuals arrested so far this year in Austin, 164 of them

have been arrested at least 50 times since 2007; more than 2,200 of them have been arrested at least 10 times since 2007.

• Why isn’t law enforcement working against these recidivists?

The data on recidivism reveals…

Source: Legislative Budget Board (2013), Statewide Criminal Justice Recidivism and Revocation Rates

Relevant Research Questions

1) Does employment decrease the likelihood of recidivism? 2) To what extent are criminal records a barrier to employment? 3) How long does a former offender need to be “clean” (i.e., crime-free) before they pose no greater risk to society or employers than the average person?

• Q1. Employment and Recidivism
• Uggen, Chris. 2000. Working as a Turning Point in the Life

Course of Criminals. American Sociological Review 67:529-46.

• Used data from the National Supported Work Demonstration

– 3,000+ individuals with an arrest record randomly assigned to a treatment group or control group, where the treatment group received an offer of employment for a minimum wage job (mainly in service or construction industries)

• Findings: for individuals age 26 and younger, there was no

effect of work on recidivism. But for former offenders age 27 and older, employment led to a 24% decline in the likelihood

• f recidivism.

• Q1. Employment and Recidivism

• Q2. The Effect of a Criminal Record

Experimental Audit Methodology:

Pager (2007) sent matched pairs of individuals (called “testers”) to apply for real job openings to see whether employers responded differently to applicants on the basis of criminal record (and race). Testers were identical except for the presence of a criminal record.

• Q2. The Effect of a Criminal Record

Black = criminal record Striped/Gray = no criminal record

Source: Pager (2003; 2007)

• Q2. The Effect of a Criminal Record

What about earnings and wages? (see, e.g., Western 2002; Western and Pettit 2005)

• Incarceration reduces the wages of formerly incarcerated

individuals by roughly 10 to 20% (compared to otherwise similar individuals who have not been incarcerated).

• The gap in wages between non-incarcerated and

formerly incarcerated individuals grows with time.

• Because Blacks and Latinos are disproportionately

represented in the prison population, incarceration contributes to wage inequality by race and ethnicity.

• Q3. Criminal Redemption
• The probability of recidivism declines with the amount of time

clean since the last arrest or conviction.

• Redemption time: how long is "long enough" for someone with

a prior record to remain arrest-free before he or she should be considered "redeemed" by a prospective employer?

– Robbery: redemption after 7.7 years for a person arrested at age 18 – Burglary: 3.8 years – Aggravated Assault: 4.3 years

• Redemption time is shorter for older offenders and those with

short criminal histories.

Source: Blumstein and Nakamura (2009); see also: http://www.nij.gov/journals/263/Pages/redemption.aspx

Summary

1) Does employment decrease the likelihood of recidivism?



• Yes. For former offenders over the age of 26, employment

decreased the likelihood of recidivism by an estimated 24%.

2) To what extent are criminal records a barrier to employment?

 A criminal record reduces the likelihood of an employer callback by 50% for whites; by 64% for blacks.  Incarceration reduces wages by 10 to 20%.

3) How long does a former offender need to be “clean” (i.e., crime-free) before they pose no greater risk to society or employers than the average person?

 It depends upon age and length of criminal history, but less than 10 years, on average.