Policy Statement 21, Research Highlight 2
Many of the communities that receive released individuals are ill prepared to absorb those with low employability.
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]
- Nancy G. La Vigne et al., A Portrait of Prisoner Reentry in Illinois (Washington, DC: The Urban Institute, 2003); Nancy G. La Vigne et al., A Portrait of Prisoner Reentry in Maryland (Washington, DC: The Urban Institute, 2003). back
- William Julius Wilson, When Work Disappears: the World of the New Urban Poor (New York: Random House, 1996). back
- 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 (1998); Michael Stoll and Steven Raphael, "Racial Differences in Spatial Job Search Patterns: Exploring the Causes and Consequences," Economic Geography 76, no. 3 (2000): 201 - 23. back
- Harry Holzer, Steven Raphael, and Michael A. Stoll, Employment Barriers Facing Ex-Offenders (Washington, DC: The Urban Institute, 2003). Harry Holzer, "Informal Job Search and Black Youth Unemployment," American Economic Review 77, no.2 (1987). back

