Damned if you do, damned if you don't: How formerly incarcerated men navigate the labor market with prison credentials*
Damned if you do, damned if you don't: How formerly incarcerated men navigate the labor market with prison credentials*
复制标题
如果你这样做就该死，如果你不这样做就该死：以前被监禁的人如何凭借监狱资格在劳动力市场上航行*
DOI：
10.1111/1745-9125.12307
复制
发表时间：
2022
期刊：
影响因子：
5.8
通讯作者：
Lindsay, Sadé L.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Lindsay, Sadé L.
虽然就业是成功重返社会的关键，但由于犯罪污名、教育水平低和工作经历稀少，以前被监禁的人很难找到工作。监狱证书被提议作为一种解决方案，以减轻这些挑战的信号停止犯罪和就业能力。然而，关于其功效的证据并不一致。在这篇文章中，我开发了一种新的解释监狱证书困境突出众多和矛盾的方式雇主可能会解释监狱证书作为积极和消极的信号。通过对俄亥俄州富兰克林县50名曾被监禁的男性进行定性访谈，我研究了监狱证书困境及其产生的不确定性如何塑造他们的求职策略和就业途径。我发现，参与者隐藏或掩盖机构隶属的监狱证书上的工作申请信号的就业能力，而不是他们的犯罪记录。然而，在工作面试中，监狱证书被用来通过使用救赎叙事将谈话从他们的犯罪记录转移到技能和犯罪停止。参与者还试图在监狱外获得证书和/或从事临时、不稳定的工作，渴望从事这种体力劳动和报酬低的工作，以实现稳定的就业。这项研究对监狱规划以及旨在改善重返社会结果的政策和做法具有影响。
Although employment is central to successful reentry, formerly incarcerated people struggle to find work because of criminal stigma, poor education, and sparse work histories. Prison credentials are proposed as one solution to alleviate these challenges by signaling criminal desistance and employability. Evidence regarding their efficacy, however, is inconsistent. In this article, I develop a novel explanation—the prison credential dilemma—highlighting the numerous and contradictory ways employers may interpret prison credentials as positive and negative signals. Drawing on 50 qualitative interviews with formerly incarcerated men in Franklin County, Ohio, I examine howthe prison credential dilemmaand the uncertainty it produces shape their job search strategies and pathways to employment. I find that participants concealed or obscured institutional affiliations of prison credentials on job applications to signal employability rather than their criminal records. In job interviews, however, prison credentials were used to divert conversations away from their criminal record toward skills and criminal desistance via the use of redemptive narratives. Participants also attempted to acquire credentials outside of prison and/or pursued temporary, precarious jobs, aspiring for such physically strenuous and poorly paid work to materialize into stable employment. This study has implications for prison programming as well as policies and practices aiming to improve reentry outcomes.