The Impact of Incarceration in State Prison on the Employment Prospects of Women

People who leave prison often face a rough road finding a job. Many believe that these difficulties are the result of the stigma associated with being in prison. Logic would have it that the same trajectory might hold for women, who are experiencing rapidly rising incarceration rates. Yet recent research by Harris School Professor Robert J. LaLonde and Harris School Ph.D. student Rosa Cho suggests otherwise. In their working paper, “The Impact of Incarceration in State Prison on the Employment Prospects of Women,” they find that the incarceration of women in the Illinois prison system appears to have a positive effect on their post-prison employment rates. The largest gains in employment rates occurred during the first two quarters after release. Even though these gains dissipate somewhat beyond this point, they remain at or, for some of the most “at risk” groups of women, above pre-prison employment rates in subsequent quarters. Although men comprise more than 90% of the inmates in state and federal prisons, the number of women who are incarcerated has grown at about 10% each year since 1980. This makes the post-prison employment prospects of female inmates increasingly important, both socially and economically. In addition, most female inmates are mothers and the custodial parent prior to their incarceration. Thus, female inmates’ children are more likely to be affected both socially and economically by their mothers’ incarceration than by their fathers’—and by their mothers’ employment prospects after prison. Women’s prison spells also tend to be shorter than men’s and for less serious, typically nonviolent offenses. Given these differences, the researchers were interested in studying whether, and to what extent, women’s employment prospects were affected by prison.

Study Design

To determine the effects of incarceration on female inmates’ post-prison employment rates, LaLonde and Cho studied nearly seven thousand economically disadvantaged women who served time in Illinois state prisons between January 1, 1995, and December 31, 2000, and who had had contact with the state’s social or child welfare systems. This included more than 80% of the female inmates incarcerated during the study period. The study used a unique data set constructed from the Illinois Department of Corrections (IDOC) and the Illinois Integrated Database (IDB). The IDB includes public aid records and child welfare records, and data in the IDB can also be matched to quarterly Unemployment Insurance (UI) wage records, allowing the researchers to compare pre- and post-prison employment rates for jobs covered by UI (or nearly all legal jobs). The analysis excluded inmates who did not appear in the IDB and may not have been economically disadvantaged. In addition, the inmates were most likely first-time offenders, given that none had been incarcerated during the five years before the study period. The researchers also considered the effects of various demographic characteristics, such as amount of time served, category of offense committed, and prior employment experiences.

Characteristics of the Inmates

The inmates in the study were disproportionately African-American (66%), unmarried (88%), and high school dropouts (67%). Nearly 85% had children, with on average two to three children. The average age of the inmates was thirty-one. Nearly one-half were incarcerated for drug law violations, and only 15% were incarcerated for personrelated offenses. The average incarceration spell lasted about nine months. For approximately one-half of the inmates, prison spells lasted less than six months. All but 1% of prison spells lasted less than 3.6 years.

The women’s employment rates before they entered prison tended to be low, an average of 24%. These employment rates were comparable to the rates of other economically disadvantaged women. In addition, pre-prison rates dipped approximately 5 percentage points before the women entered prison, for two likely reasons. First, during the time immediately prior to incarceration, most of the women likely spent time in county jail, which interrupted employment. Second, the authors speculate that the circumstances that led to their imprisonment probably lowered their employment prospects. Earnings calculations indicate that during the 6.5-year period covered by the sample, only about 10% of the unmarried women ever held a UI-covered job in which their average earnings were sufficient to lift them out of poverty for at least a fiscal quarter. Median quarterly earnings when they did work were only $1,174, or the equivalent of a part-time job at the minimum wage.

Study Findings

In the short term, which is defined as the first two full quarters following release, employment rates were about 4 percentage points above expected levels, based on pre-prison employment levels of the women and of other similar women who eventually served time. In other words, about 30% of the women were employed two quarters after release. Beyond this point, the apparent gains dissipate but remain at or above expected levels in subsequent quarters for up to five years. Researchers found that post-prison employment rates for women are sensitive to how much time they spent in prison and to their demographic characteristics. For example, gains in employment levels persisted beyond the first few quarters for those women whose prison spells lasted more than six months, those with four or more children, and those who served time for person-related crimes. Gains for women incarcerated for more than six months are comparable in magnitude to those reported for employment and training programs targeted at economically disadvantaged women. A woman’s employment status prior to incarceration was also a strong predictor of her future employment.

A final factor to consider is the local unemployment rate. During the time of the study, the Illinois unemployment rate—in the quarters the women left prison—averaged 4.7%, a relatively good economic climate. LaLonde and Cho note that a 1 percentage point increase in the local unemployment rate above the regional average is associated with about a 1.6 percentage point drop in the probability of former inmates being employed in any given quarter.

Policy Implications

The results of this study indicate that time out of the workforce or diminished skills are not costs associated with incarcerating women. In other words, time in prison does not adversely affect women’s labor market prospects. These women do poorly in the labor market after prison because they would have done poorly anyway. For many years prior to their first prison spell, these women’s employment rates are low, and when working their earnings are also very low. Indeed, women’s employment prospects actually improve after prison. Rather than diminishing women’s labor market prospects, time in prison appears, on balance, to help them. The authors point to several possible reasons, including less access to drugs and better access to health care. Women who serve longer prison spells also have access to prison education and drug treatment programs. Women are likely to leave prison in better shape than when they entered. The authors estimate that the apparent subsequent employment gains associated with prison are worth about $600 per female inmate to society over the first five post-prison years.