Abstract
How might parole operate as a labor market institution, and how might it contribute to the governance of poverty and social marginality? Drawing on a series of correctional, employment, and arrest records for a cohort of parolees in Michigan, we show that parole generally supervises a jobless population, but also oversees a significant number of people who work. We also find evidence that parole, contrary to many expectations, increases the odds of employment. However, we do not find convincing evidence that parolee employment alleviates individual poverty or reduces the odds of recidivism. These results inspire a conceptualization of parolefare, another poverty regulating regime that successfully motivates worker-citizenship but does little to extend or protect the life chances of the poor.
- © 2020 Russell Sage Foundation. Seim, Josh, and David J. Harding. 2020. “Parolefare: Post-prison Supervision and Low-Wage Work.” RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences 6(1): 173–95. DOI: 10.7758/RSF.2020.6.1.08. We thank the many people who provided us with feedback on earlier versions of this article. We are especially grateful to the participants in Berkeley Sociology’s Race and Economic Inequality Workshop who critically evaluated our theory and method. A version of this article was also presented at the Pacific Sociological Association 2017 annual meeting and benefited from audience commentary. Chris Herring provided us with a detailed and constructive critique earlier in the development of this project. Heather Harris also assisted greatly with data cleaning and management. Collection and analysis of the data for this project were funded by the University of Michigan Center for Local, State, and Urban Policy, the National Poverty Center at the University of Michigan, the Russell Sage Foundation, the National Institute of Justice (2008-IJ-CX-0018, 2012-IJ-CX-0044), the National Science Foundation (SES-1061018, SES- 1060708), and the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (1R21HD060160 01A1) and by center grants from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development to the Population Studies Centers at the University of Michigan (R24 HD041028) and at UC Berkeley (R24 HD073964). Direct correspondence to: Josh Seim at jseim{at}usc.edu, Department of Sociology, University of Southern California, 851 Downey Way, Los Angeles, CA 900089–1059; and David J. Harding at dharding{at}berkeley.edu, Department of Sociology, University of California, Berkeley, 462 Barrows Hall, Berkeley, CA 94720.
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