HELP US END MASS INCARCERATION
The Prison Policy Initiative uses research, advocacy, and organizing to dismantle mass incarceration. We’ve been in this movement for 23 years, thanks to individual donors like you.
Can you help us sustain this work?
Thank you,
Peter Wagner, Executive Director Donate
Can you help us sustain this work?
Thank you,
Peter Wagner, Executive Director Donate
Data Source: Bureau of Justice Statistics, Employment of Persons Releases from Federal Prison in 2010, Table 5, and Congressional Research Service, Unemployment Rates During the COVID-19 Pandemic. (Graph: Leah Wang, 2022)
This graph originally appeared in New data on formerly incarcerated people’s employment reveal labor market injustices.
As the data show, not only is reentry difficult in the first months of release from prison, but the struggle to find a job actually grew over time for the study cohort of people leaving federal prison in 2010. We show these increasing jobless rates next to one of the most dire economic moments of recent years — when the US unemployment rate reached its highest point of around 15% in mid-2020.
