Doctoral Dissertation Research: The Exploitation of a Criminal Record: Coercive Work while on Parole

在从监狱释放后的一段时间内，假释人员可能会因其假释规定的工作要求而被迫就业。当人们发现自己处于法律劳动保护的范围之外时，就会发生强制性就业，如果他们拒绝，就会被迫在明确或感知到的刑事司法后果威胁的条件下工作。这些不同的权力动态为剥削已经被边缘化的劳动人口创造了空间，这对社会经济不平等和累犯有着持久的影响。拟议的项目将是第一个系统地记录从监狱释放后一段时间内强迫工作的普遍程度的项目，并将探索强迫工作和假释犯的生活经历。对就业和出狱后惩罚的看法。此外，该项目将调查人们在假释期间如何应对与就业要求相关的刑事司法制裁迫在眉睫的威胁。到目前为止，再就业政策制定者和学者们都把重点放在了招聘过程上，最近的一项运动证明了这一点。禁止盒子；？然而，这个项目引起了人们对现实的关注，即重新进入社会的障碍并没有在雇用的那一刻停止，而是在整个就业过程中持续存在。通过对洛杉矶县假释成人的两个阶段的原始数据收集，该项目将深入了解假释期间强制工作的普遍性和经验。首先，对积极假释者进行的40次深度定性访谈将提供对强制性工作在社区监督中的表现方式的细致理解，这种经历是什么样的，以及假释者如何看待监狱后的工作要求和惩罚。其次，通过大规模的网络调查获得定量数据。为了获得对洛杉矶县假释成年人强制工作的代表性估计，调查参与者招募将采用受访者驱动抽样（RDS）设计，这是研究难以接触到的人群的最有效策略之一。本研究将结合面对面的RDS招募方法和网络调查，采用混合方法研究前囚犯的就业情况，这可能对未来对其他隐藏人群的研究产生影响。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

During the period following release from prison, people on parole may experience coercive employment as a result of their parole-mandated work requirements. Coercive employment occurs when people find themselves outside the bounds of legal labor protections, forced to work in conditions under either the explicit or perceived threat of criminal justice repercussions should they refuse. These differential power dynamics create space for the exploitation of already marginalized laboring populations, which has lasting implications for socioeconomic inequality and recidivism. The proposed project will be the first to systematically document the prevalence of coercive work in the period following release from prison, and will explore both the lived experience of coercive work and parolees? perceptions of employment and punishment after prison. Additionally, this project will investigate how people navigate the looming threat of criminal justice sanctions as tied to employment requirements while on parole. To date, reentry policymakers and scholars alike have focused on the hiring process, as evidenced by the recent movement to ?Ban the Box;? however, this project draws attention to the reality that barriers to reentry do not stop at the moment of hire but, rather, continue on throughout the employment process.Through two phases of original data collection with adults on parole in Los Angeles County, this project will provide insight into the prevalence and experience of coercive work while on parole. First, 40 in-depth qualitative interviews with active parolees will provide a nuanced understanding of the ways coercive work manifests while on community supervision, what that experience is like, and how parolees perceive work requirements and punishment after prison. Second, quantitative data will be obtained through a large-scale web survey. In order to obtain estimates of coercive work that are representative of adults on parole in Los Angeles County, survey participant recruitment will utilize a Respondent-Driven Sampling (RDS) design, one of the most effective strategies for studying hard-to-reach populations. This study will combine an in-person RDS recruitment method with the web survey for a mixed methods approach to studying employment among former prisoners that may have implications for future research on other hidden populations.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.