Jobholding Barrier: Felony Convictions

Two out of every five of New York City’s black men were jobless in 2004. This was the finding of a recent labor market report (PDF) released by the Community Service Society (CSS). That computes to about 235,000 people, approximately the population of Newark, New Jersey. In addition, black men have steadily lost ground in jobholding over the past decade relative to other groups in the city.

By putting a number on the issue of persistent unemployment, CSS research spurred the City Council to create the NYCWorks initiative, appropriating $10 million to fund training programs for chronically jobless New Yorkers. It added another $18 million in this year’s budget. This must be only a start to confront so large and enduring a problem.

An unaccounted factor for the low rate of jobholding for black men is a high percentage of felony convictions. An estimated 16.6 percent of black men nationally are current or former state or federal prisoners – a rate six times that of white men. The federal government estimates that one out of eight black men in their late 20’s are incarcerated.

Factor in
low job rate

In New York State, nearly 57,000 formerly incarcerated citizens are on parole. About 80 percent are black and Latino men from New York City. Blacks comprise 16 percent of the state’s population, but make up 50 percent of those on parole. Similarly, Latinos comprise 15 percent of the state’s population, but make up 32 percent of those on parole.

The state releases almost 30,000 prisoners each year. Most parolees return to their home communities – a large number to Harlem, the South Bronx, Central Brooklyn, and Jamaica.

There was a time – before the Rockefeller drug laws overwhelmed the system – when those released from prison had to have a job and a place to live before being paroled. Now they’re given a minimal stipend and cut loose with little possibility of finding employment or a place back in their communities.

Racial discrimination is a major factor in the economic lives of black men. Recently, an experiment was conducted where black men and white men – with equivalent resumes of education and experience - posed as applicants for entry-level jobs. The white men admitted to having a criminal record; the blacks no record.

The result: white men with criminal records had a better chance of getting a job offer or a callback after an initial interview than black men without records. Black men with criminal records were only about one-third as likely to get a job offer as white men with criminal records.

Consider the implications of this when one in three black men with only a high school diploma will go to prison before the age of 40. There are more black men enmeshed in the criminal justice system than are enrolled in colleges.

Jobs Off Limits

Besides providing an excuse not to hire black men, a felony conviction bars them from employment in several sectors of the economy because an increasing number of jobs in the workforce are now off limits to anyone with a prison record. These barriers to employment contribute to a return or “recidivism” rate of 50 percent within three years after release.

This is one of the collateral consequences of imprisonment. Barriers to employment, many erected by law, increasingly damage the economic well being of black and Latino communities.

In New York State, ex-felons are barred from such occupations as licensed barber or plumber. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, there are 12,840 plumbers employed in New York City with a median wage of $23.84 an hour. These numbers - and wages - represent a formidable workforce from which people formerly incarcerated with felony convictions are automatically barred because of counterproductive employment laws.

Creating Opportunities

Ten years ago, the federal government instituted its welfare to work program. Although the results have been questionable during an economic turndown, the program undoubtedly reframed the debate over work and poverty. Similarly, we should create a program of economic opportunities for parolees, with job training and education leading to employment.

Except in rare circumstances, involving children, the elderly, or the nature of the crime, jobs should not be off limits to people with felony convictions. Opening up the number of occupations to New Yorkers coming out of prison would help to restore families and stabilize communities facing the return of large numbers of recently released individuals.

The state spends more than $20,000 a year to incarcerate a prisoner. An investment in programs that would help parolees attain economic self-sufficiency would yield a greater return both for the local economy and for public safety.

From the New York Amsterdam News
March 9 - 15, 2006