Barred: Labor Market Dynamics and Human Capital Development among People on Probation and Parole

• Author: Bryan L. Sykes,Meghan Ballard,Daniela Kaiser,Vicente Celestino Mata,J. Amanda Sharry,Justin Sola
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/00027162221099291
• Published date: 01 May 2022
• Date: 01 May 2022
• Subject Matter: Overcoming Barriers to Living-Wage Employment

28 ANNALS, AAPSS, 701, May 2022

DOI: 10.1177/00027162221099291

Barred: Labor

Market

Dynamics and

Human Capital

Development

among People

on Probation

and Parole

By

BRYAN L. SYKES,

MEGHAN BALLARD,

DANIELA KAISER,

VICENTE CELESTINO

MATA,

J. AMANDA SHARRY,

and

JUSTIN SOLA

1099291ANN The Annals Of The American AcademyBarred

research-article2022

Obtaining employment is a major barrier to social rein-

tegration for people on probation or parole. Research

on the reentry process identifies several mechanisms

that accentuate difficulties in locating work, including

human capital development, structural changes in the

labor market, and onerous probation and parole condi-

tions. In this article, we review theories that explain low

labor market participation rates among people reenter-

ing society, and we draw on multiple sources of data to

identify the types of jobs that are available to people

with low human capital. We find that nearly a quarter

of people in America’s state and federal prisons had

permanently removed themselves from the formal

labor market before their most recent arrest; however,

exclusionary hiring practices in the formal labor market

often push those carrying the stigma of a criminal

record into underground or informal labor markets,

where wage rates are markedly higher than the federal

minimum wage. Our findings demonstrate that severe

and chronic employment struggles often predate and

follow incarceration. We provide a detailed discussion

of policy reform proposals that could help to remedy

this harmful dynamic.

Keywords: employment; human capital; probation;

parole; education; reentry

The structure of the U.S. labor market has

dramatically changed over the last 50

years. Industry centralization, globalization,

and technological advancement have

Bryan L. Sykes is an inaugural Inclusive Excellence Term

Chair Associate Professor and Chancellor’s Fellow in

criminology, law and society (and, by courtesy, sociology

and public health) at the University of California, Irvine.

His research focuses on demography and criminology, with

particular interests in fertility, mortality, population health,

mass incarceration, inequality, and research methodology.

Meghan Ballard is a doctoral student in criminology,

law, and society at the University of California, Irvine.

Her research interests include linguistic (in)justice,

racial and ethnic disparities in the criminal justice

system, and the interplay between social inequities and

access to justice.

Correspondence: blsykes@uci.edu

BARRED 29

contributed to monopsony, where employers pay workers less than the value of

their work (Benmelech, Bergman, and Kim 2020; Manning 2020; Sokolova and

Sørensen 2021), thereby reducing the bargaining power of workers and increas-

ing wage inequality among them (Mueller, Ouimet, and Simintzi 2017). As low-

wage job growth, driven primarily by service work, has surpassed middle-wage

job growth (Dwyer and Wright 2019), low-skilled jobs with the potential for

upward mobility and escaping poverty have largely disappeared (W. J. Wilson

1987, 1996). For example, by the late 1970s, globalization had already led to a

mass offshoring and a significant decline in well-paid, unionized manufacturing

jobs (Holzer, Offner, and Sorensen 2006; Lazonick, Moss, and Weitz 2020;

Rosenfeld 2014, 2021; W. J. Wilson 1987).

Changes in labor market structure have been accompanied by structural shifts

in criminal justice policies and practices. The expansion of the criminal justice

system over recent decades has compounded racial inequality in employment,

wages, and wealth accumulation (Western and Pettit 2005; Pettit 2012; Sykes and

Maroto 2016). Today, roughly 4.3 million adults are on probation and parole

(Minton, Beatty, and Zeng 2021) and 70 million adults in the United States have

criminal records (Craigie, Grawert, and Kimble 2020). The stigma and costs of a

criminal record are not limited to felony convictions (Kohler-Hausmann 2018).

Rather, people with any kind of criminal record face barriers to employment

(Holzer, Raphael, and Stoll 2006; Pager 2003).

Accounting for poor employment outcomes among people with a criminal

record, researchers often point to characteristically low levels of educational

attainment and sparse work histories. In 2010, 55.7 percent of all people in

prisons and jails had dropped out of high school (Ewert, Sykes, and Pettit

2014). While wages of skilled workers have risen in recent decades, the real

wages of people who dropped out of high school have declined (Autor, Katz,

and Kearney 2005).

This article reviews research on barriers to work for people with a criminal

record. We explain the ways in which the employment struggles of people with a

criminal record are a product of structural challenges faced by many workers

Daniela Kaiser is a doctoral student in criminology, law, and society at the University of

California, Irvine. Her research interests include the experience and consequences of criminal

justice contact for individuals and their families, with a particular focus on how incarceration

affects family life and child well-being.

Vicente Celestino Mata is a doctoral student in criminology, law, and society at the University

of California, Irvine. His research interests include understanding the impacts of settler colo-

nialism on immigration law and policy and the decision-making practices of immigration

judges.

J. Amanda Sharry is a doctoral student in criminology, law, and society at the University of

California, Irvine. Her research focuses on the genesis and effects of poverty and inequality,

specifically how it relates to social marginality, formerly incarcerated populations, and the

labor market.

Justin Sola is a doctoral candidate in criminology, law, and society at the University of

California, Irvine. His research involves testing theories of why people seek security and

exploring how inequality is maintained and magnified in the criminal legal system.