Marked: Race, Crime, And Finding Work In An Era Of Mass Incarceration

MARKED MARKED Race, Crime, and Finding Work in an Era of Mass Incarceration DEVAH PAGER The University of Chicago Press : : Chicago and London Devah Pager is assistant professor of sociology at Princeton University. The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637 The University of Chicago Press, Ltd., London
C 2007 by The University of Chicago All rights reserved. Published 2007 Printed in the United States of America 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 09 08 07 ISBN-13: 978-0-226-64483-7 ISBN-10: 0-226-64483-9 1 2 3 4 5 (cloth) (cloth) Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Pager, Devah. Marked : race, crime, and finding work in an era of mass incarceration / Devah Pager. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN-13: 978-0-226-64483-7 (cloth : alk. paper) ISBN-10: 0-226-64483-9 (cloth : alk. paper) 1. Ex-convicts—Employment. 2. African Americans—Employment. I. Title. HV9304.P23 2007 331.5
108996073—dc22 2007003733 ∞ The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the  American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1992. Contents Preface vii Acknowledgments xi Introduction 1 1 Mass Incarceration and the Problems of Prisoner Reentry 9 2 The Labor Market Consequences of Incarceration 28 3 Measuring the Labor Market Consequences of Incarceration 41 4 The Mark of a Criminal Record 58 5 The Mark of Race 86 6 Two Strikes and You’re Out: The Intensification of Racial and Criminal Stigma 100 7 But What If . . .? Variations on the Experimental Design 117 8 Conclusion: Missing the Mark 144 Notes 161 References 213 Index 235 v Preface It was late in the day when Darrell finally made it back home, tired, hot, and utterly worn out. It had been over 90 degrees and humid all week, making it unpleasant just to be outside. But Darrell had woken up early each morning, put on a freshly ironed shirt, collected a set of r´esum´es in his file folder, and set off to find a job. He had visited about three or four employers each day that week, driving up and down the highways of Milwaukee to track down the latest job opening. When he arrived at businesses, he was usually greeted with a flat stare, handed an application form, and told to wait for a callback. Darrell had yet to receive calls from any of the employers he had visited that week. Over fifteen applications submitted, and not one single shot at a job. That day Darrell had had a particularly unpleasant experience. He had visited a local supermarket to apply for a job as a cashier. Darrell was caught off guard when the manager asked bluntly, “Do you have any convictions on your record?” Darrell wasn’t expecting the question up-front like that. He was dressed neatly and presented himself well, but he hadn’t had the chance to say more than a few words before the manager’s question forced him to admit that, yes, he did have a criminal background. He had recently served time for a felony drug possession charge. The manager grudgingly allowed him to leave his r´esum´e, but Darrell could tell that he had no chance of getting the job. Darrell could have been any one of the hundreds of thousands of young vii viii Preface black men released from prison each year, facing bleak employment prospects as a result of their race and criminal record. In this case, however, Darrell happened to be working for me. He was one of four college students I had hired as “testers” for a study of the barriers to employment facing exoffenders. An articulate, attractive, and hard-working young man, Darrell was assigned to apply for entry-level job openings throughout the Milwaukee metropol