Ex-cons face job barriers

Employers are extremely reluctant to take a chance on a job applicant with a prison record, no matter how qualified he may be, says a new study.

Employers are only one-half to one-third as likely to consider applicants with prior felony convictions, relative to equally qualified men with no prison record, says Devah Pager, a sociology researcher at UW–Madison.

The findings of this study will be presented Monday, Aug. 19, at the annual meetings of the American Sociological Association, Chicago Hilton and Towers.

In order to test the effect of a criminal record on employment opportunities, Pager sent pairs of young men, matched by age, race, appearance, and qualifications, to apply for real entry-level jobs throughout Milwaukee.

For each application, one young man presented himself as having been recently released from prison for a felony drug conviction; the other presented equal qualifications but no criminal record. Pager then waited to see which of the applications received call-backs from employers. The applicants who indicated having a criminal record were much less likely to be considered for the job.

“Employers seem to use the information as a screening mechanism, weeding out applicants at the very start of the hiring process,” Pager says. “These guys aren’t given a chance to explain why they got into trouble, or to demonstrate whether they have been rehabilitated. As soon as an employer sees the box for criminal history checked ‘yes,’ they’re out.”

Pager used an experimental method to test whether the stigma of having been in prison would affect employment opportunities by itself. “Critics of previous research in this area argue that it’s not prison that creates the problem, but rather it’s the types of people who end up in prison who would have had trouble finding work no matter what. This study shows that even men who are employable in all other respects have great difficulties finding work if they have a criminal record,” she says.

It is illegal in Wisconsin to discriminate against applicants with criminal records unless the circumstances of the crime correspond closely to the requirements of the job.

The conclusions of this study have broad implications for the fate of millions of men returning from prison. There are currently more than two million individuals behind bars, with more than 600,000 being released each year.

“We know that finding quality, steady employment is one of the strongest predictors of desistance from crime. Yet, these men have very little opportunity to obtain legitimate work. By channeling so many young men, particularly low-level drug-offenders, through the criminal justice system, we may be exacerbating the very conditions that lead to crime in the first place,” Pager says.

Race was also a significant factor. Compared to equally qualified white applicants, African Americans were less than half as likely to receive call-backs from employers. In fact, even blacks without criminal records were less likely to receive call-backs than whites with criminal records. Only five percent of blacks with criminal records received call-backs from employers.