Why Do People under Community Supervision Work and Earn So Little? And What Can Policy Do to Increase Their Employment and Earnings?

• Author: Harry J. Holzer
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/00027162221109992
• Published date: 01 May 2022
• Date: 01 May 2022
• Subject Matter: Overcoming Barriers to Living-Wage Employment

46 ANNALS, AAPSS, 701, May 2022

DOI: 10.1177/00027162221109992

Why Do People

under

Community

Supervision

Work and Earn

So Little? And

What Can

Policy Do to

Increase Their

Employment

and Earnings?

By

HARRY J. HOLZER

1109992ANN The Annals of the American AcademyEmployment and Earnings Under Communty Supervision

research-article2022

In this article, I review what we know about the impacts

of felony convictions and incarceration on later employ-

ment and earnings, particularly for those under com-

munity supervision. I then discuss what employers and

public policymakers can do to improve these outcomes.

First, I review the basic empirical facts on the employ-

ment and earnings of returning citizens, various

hypotheses that could explain these facts, and the avail-

able evidence that support those hypotheses. Second, I

review why people under community supervision may

have either similar or different employment outcomes

from those of returning citizens more broadly. Third, I

consider the perspectives of employers and why it

might be in their interests to reduce hiring penalties

associated with earlier incarceration (especially in tight

labor markets). Fourth, I consider what we know about

policies to reduce these penalties and improve out-

comes. In sum, I argue that both moral and economic

arguments exist for a general reduction of hiring penal-

ties that would improve employment outcomes.

Keywords: parole and probation; returning citizens;

employment and earnings; earnings;

recidivism

At any moment in time, over 4 million Americans

are under community supervision—that is,

either on probation or parole after being

incarcerated. And like so many other “return-

ing citizens” or people with felony convictions,

their employment and earnings rates are quite

low.

Harry J. Holzer is the John LaFarge SJ Professor of

Public Policy at the McCourt School of Public Policy,

Georgetown University. He is also a nonresident

senior fellow in economic studies at the Brookings

Institution, an institute fellow at the American Institutes

for Research, and a former chief economist at the U.S.

Department of Labor. He was also a founding director

of the Georgetown Center on Poverty and Inequality.

His research interests include low-wage labor markets,

the employment challenges of Black men and youth,

community colleges and the labor market, as well as

employment and training policy more broadly.

Correspondence: hjh4@georgetown.edu