The Report > Review of the Re-Entry Process > Transition > Creation of Employment Opportunities

D: Managing the Key Transition Period

2: Many of the communities that receive released individuals are ill prepared to absorb those with low employability.

In this chapter:

  • Overview
  • Research Highlights:
  • Recommendations:

    • Most inmates return to low-income, disadvantaged communities with limited employment prospects. [1]   These communities often have large numbers of low-skilled residents and relatively few unskilled jobs, let alone skilled jobs offering long-term employment stability. Peer groups in these neighborhoods presumably provide relatively few contacts to the world of legitimate work. [2]   All residents in these neighborhoods are adversely affected by what has been coined "spatial mismatch" - a surplus of workers relative to the number of available jobs in certain neighborhoods. [3]   Weak networks and contacts will continue to exacerbate the employment difficulties of this population. [4]  

    1. Nancy G. LaVigne, Cynthia A. Mamalian, Christy Visher, and Jeremy Travis, A Portrait of Prisoner Reentry in Illinois (Washington D.C.: The Urban Institute) ; Nancy G. LaVigne et al., A Portrait of Prisoner Reentry in Maryland (Washington DC: The Urban Institute) .

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    2. William Julius Wilson, When Work Disappears: the World of the New Urban Poor (New York: Random House) .

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    3. Keith R. Ihlanfeldt and David L. Sjoquist, "The Spatial Mismatch Hypothesis: A Review of Recent Studies and Their Implications for Welfare Reform," Fannie Mae Foundation Housing Policy Debate 9, no. 4 ; Michael Stoll and Steven Raphael, "Racial Differences in Spatial Job Search Patterns: Exploring the Causes and Consequences," Economic Geography 76, no. 3, 201 - 23 .

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    4. Harry Holzer, Steven Raphael, and Michael Stoll, Employment Barriers Facing Ex-Offenders (Washington, DC: The Urban Institute) . Harry Holzer, "Informal Job Search and Black Youth Unemployment," American Economic Review 77, no.2 .

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