Post-prison Employment Quality and Future Criminal Justice Contact

Effect of High-Quality Versus Low-Quality Employment on Future Criminal Justice Contact

Source: Author’s compilation from data from the Michigan Unemployment Insurance Agency and the Michigan Workforce Development Agency.

Note: These figures represent estimates of the effect of finding employment after release from prison in an industry that offers high-quality employment (relative to finding employment in an industry that offers low-quality employment) on the cumulative likelihood of experiencing an arrest (left panel) or returning to prison (right panel) in each of the eight quarters after finding employment. High-quality industries include manufacturing, transportation and warehousing, construction, educational services, and mining; low-quality industries include services to buildings and dwellings, employment services, arts-entertainment-recreation, accommodation and food services, and other services. Estimates are expressed in percentage points, with negative values indicating reduced future criminal justice contact for those who find high-quality employment. The estimates with solid-line confidence intervals represent the naïve difference in future criminal justice contact between those who find high- and low-quality employment. The estimates with dashed-line confidence intervals represent the estimated difference in future criminal justice contact between those who find high- and low-quality employment that accounts for differential selection into employment quality using inverse propensity score weighting.

Effect of Highest-Quality Versus Lowest-Quality Employment on Future Criminal Justice Contact

Source: Author’s compilation from data from the Michigan Unemployment Insurance Agency and the Michigan Workforce Development Agency.

Note: These figures represent estimates of the effect of finding employment after release from prison in an industry that offers highest-quality employment (relative to finding employment in an industry that offers lowest-quality employment) on the cumulative likelihood of experiencing an arrest (left panel) or returning to prison (right panel) in each of the eight quarters after finding employment. Highest-quality industries include manufacturing and transportation and warehousing; lowest-quality industries include employment services. Estimates are expressed in percentage points, with negative values indicating reduced future criminal justice contact for those who find highest-quality employment. The estimates with solid-line 95 percent confidence intervals represent the naïve difference in future criminal justice contact between those who find highest- and lowest-quality employment. The estimates with dashed-line 95 percent confidence intervals represent the estimated difference in future criminal justice contact between those who find highest- and lowest-quality employment that accounts for differential selection into employment quality using inverse propensity score weighting.

Effect of Employment on Future Arrests, by Employment Quality

Source: Author’s compilation from data from the Michigan Unemployment Insurance Agency and the Michigan Workforce Development Agency.

Note: These figures represent estimates of the effect of finding employment within the first quarter after release from prison in industries that offer varying qualities of employment (relative to not finding employment in this time) on the cumulative likelihood of experiencing an arrest in each of the eight quarters after this time. The estimates with solid-line 95 percent confidence intervals represent the naïve difference in future arrests between those who find employment within the first quarter after release from prison and those who do not find employment. The estimates with dashed-line 95 percent confidence intervals) represent the estimated difference in future arrests that accounts for differential selection into employment of varying quality using inverse propensity score weighting.