Tie Unemployment Benefits to Prison Labor to Provide Immediate Economic Relief During Reentry

• In Event: Policy-Implications of DLC Research 2: The Life-Course Consequences of Criminal Justice Policy

Abstract

Social safety net programs have causal effects on crime. These are publicly funded programs designed for people facing hardship, including need-based public assistance and contributory social insurance. Effectiveness of the social safety net is supported by evidence from all “three worlds” of the modern welfare state, and in the Global North as well as in the Global South. Expansion of the reach or generosity of the social safety net also reduces recidivism among people with criminal records, a link which is the focus of the current paper. The paper argues for implementation of a system of unemployment insurance to provide direct cash transfer to individuals leaving prison rather than, or at least in addition to, more standard (and largely ineffective) transitional assistance in the form of job readiness and job placement assistance.

Author

• Robert Apel, Rutgers University - Newark