Finding Employment After Prison: Background information when reading Sugar Run

Finding Employment After Prison

This article relates to Sugar Run

In Sugar Run, the principal protagonist Jodi McCarty has just been released from prison after serving a nearly 20-year term. She finds life as a free woman more difficult than she imagined, largely due to her inability to find gainful employment. This is a common issue with newly released inmates, and one of the leading causes of recidivism.

According to a 2018 study conducted by the Brookings Institute, only 55% of former inmates report any earned income the first year after their release. Among those who do find work, the median income is just $10,090. Only 20% of working inmates reported earning over $15,000. (The federal poverty line in the United States in 2019 is $12,490 for a single person household.)

A 2018 report by the Prison Policy Initiative states that among the 5 million formerly incarcerated Americans 27% are unemployed. This is five times higher than the rate of unemployment among the general population of the U.S. They further note that, among this group, women of color find it most difficult to find employment, with men of color not far behind. Their research shows that, despite a majority of companies claiming they do not discriminate on the basis of a criminal record when hiring, a criminal history reduces an individual's responses from potential employers by 50%. Former inmates who are white men are more likely to be hired in full time positions, whereas people of color are most likely to find only part time or occasional work.

There are many potential solutions to the problem of unemployment post-incarceration. There is a growing activist movement seeking to "Ban the Box" asking about criminal records on job application forms. Twenty states have passed legislation requiring the removal of this question from applications for public employers, and ten states have laws forbidding this question for both public and private companies. Target Corporation "banned the box" in 2013. The Prison Policy Initiative has suggested a guaranteed basic income for a brief period for the formerly incarcerated upon release, as well as increased insurance and tax benefits for employers willing to hire ex-convicts. Obviously, failure to find a job can be a huge problem for someone just released from prison, and can even push people back into criminal activity, just as it does for Jodi in Sugar Run. A Christian non-profit group called Prison Fellowship works with currently incarcerated individuals, providing mentoring services and job training to prepare them for the transition to life on the outside. A similar program is run by America Works, and this program was the subject of a 2015 study by the Manhattan Institute, which determined that enhanced job training for newly released non-violent offenders substantially lowered the chance of recidivism over the 18-36 months post-prison. Once a person has served their term, it is vital they be permitted and encouraged to rejoin society.

Filed under Society and Politics

This "beyond the book article" relates to Sugar Run. It originally ran in March 2019 and has been updated for the October 2019 paperback edition. Go to magazine.