Incarceration's Effects on Employment and the Labor Market
This paper explores the consequences of incarceration on the labor market in the United States, arguing that rising imprisonment rates produce measurable and largely causal effects on employment outcomes. The paper addresses three primary consequences: the difficulty ex-prisoners face obtaining employment due to background checks and employer preferences, the wage penalty imposed on those who do find work, and the racial stratification of the labor market that disadvantages African-American and Latino former prisoners disproportionately. Drawing on research by Travis and Western and Devah Pager's landmark study on criminal records, the paper concludes that incarceration broadly harms labor market equity while simultaneously benefiting some employers through a justification for lower wages.
- Introduction: Incarceration and the Labor Market: Establishes causal link between incarceration and labor market effects
- Barriers to Employment for Former Prisoners: Background checks and employer bias block ex-prisoner hiring
- Wage Penalties and Diminished Earnings: Former prisoners earn less and face chronic joblessness
- Employer Perspectives and Market Distortions: Employers benefit from lower wages paid to ex-prisoners
- Racial Stratification and Labor Market Homogenization: Minority ex-prisoners face compounded employment discrimination
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What makes this paper effective
- It moves logically from a broad causal claim to specific, concrete consequences—employment barriers, wage depression, and racial stratification—giving the argument a clear progressive structure.
- The paper acknowledges a counterpoint (that employers benefit from the arrangement) before reaffirming the harm to former prisoners, demonstrating basic analytical balance.
- Direct quotations from Travis and Western are used economically to substantiate key empirical claims rather than substituting for analysis.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The paper demonstrates cause-and-effect reasoning applied to social science evidence. Each section identifies a mechanism—employer screening, wage competition, racial bias—and traces how incarceration activates it. This "mechanism + evidence + implication" pattern is a foundational move in social science writing.
Structure breakdown
The paper opens with a thesis establishing a causal relationship between incarceration and labor market outcomes. Three body sections then develop distinct consequences: hiring barriers, lower wages, and racial market stratification. A brief counterargument paragraph acknowledges the employer perspective before the final section returns to the paper's central concern—equity and social reintegration. The paper closes with a Works Cited page in MLA format.
Introduction: Incarceration and the Labor Market
It strongly appears that there is a direct correlation between incarceration and its effects on the labor market. A review of articles pertaining to this subject suggests that this relationship is largely causal in nature. The reality of the situation is that there are increasing rates of incarceration (Travis and Western 233) in the United States in the 21st century. Thus, it is accurate to state that the effects of incarceration on the labor market are increasing as well, and resonate throughout it both in terms of the circumstances of individuals who have experienced incarceration and on the labor market in general.
Barriers to Employment for Former Prisoners
The most significant effect of incarceration on the labor market involves the marked difficulty that those who have been imprisoned face in obtaining employment. Several factors contribute to this reality. Many employers conduct background checks on potential employees and require that applicants disclose their criminal history. As such, these employers typically prefer to hire individuals who have never been incarcerated, particularly in cases involving a felony conviction. In this respect, one of the main consequences of incarceration is that it shrinks the pool of viable candidates in the labor market. More acutely, however, is the consequence that for those who have been incarcerated, it is increasingly difficult to obtain steady, gainful employment.
Works Cited
Pager, Devah. "The Mark of a Criminal Record." AJS. 108(5), 937–975.
Travis, Jeremy, and Bruce Western. "The Growth of Incarceration in the United States: Exploring Causes and Consequences." The National Academy Press. 2014. Web. http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=18613
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