Understanding Labor Market Exclusion and Exploitation Among Criminalized People

• In Event: 50220 - Section on Organizations, Occupations, and Work Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Table 8: Hiring and Job Searches

Abstract

Criminalized populations are both excluded from decent labor market opportunities and included into the economy in a number of exploitive ways. Regarding the former assertion (exclusion), I explore the institutional and organizational mechanisms that exclude those with felony records from attaining labor market opportunities. This exercise pushes back against individualistic perspectives (popular and criminological) around the economic patterns of criminalized people. On the latter assertion (exploitive or subordinated inclusion, e.g. Katz 2020), I detail how criminalized people are funneled toward bad jobs – e.g. low-wage, insecure, temporary, etc. – through a range of processes, involving parole/probation supervision, temp agencies, federal employer-subsidies, and reentry organizations. This paper paints a more accurate picture of the structural position(s) occupied by criminalized people and forces us to contend with the dynamic relationship between mass criminalization and racial capitalism.

Author

• Lucius Couloute, Trinity College