Why Public Health Practitioners Should Care About Job Prospects for People with Criminal Records: Employment Challenges and Successful Prison and Jail Reentry

Abstract

Each year in the United States, over half a million individuals in prison and another nine million in jail will return to the community. Many of these men and women face extreme uncertainty when they are released: they may not know where their next meal will come from; they may not have a safe place to stay; they are often left without insurance or healthcare; their families may have left them; and very few know where to find work so they can begin to put food on the table and pay off court-ordered fines and fees. Among the myriad of needs a person has when they return from incarceration, individuals with criminal records and their probation or parole officers cite employment as the lynchpin to success.