The Case for Fair Chance Hiring
The Case for Fair Chance Hiring
“Giving more people a second chance allows businesses to step-up and do their part to reduce recidivism, hire talented workers, and strengthen the economy.” — J.P. Morgan Chase Chairman and CEO Jamie Dimon
Justice-involved individuals face long-term collateral consequences that act as significant barriers to their rehabilitation. Access to employment opportunities are critical to reducing recidivism, yet they often face structural barriers to securing a job. Employers’ reluctancy to hire applicants with histories of incarceration due to legal and social stigma is acutely harmful to the rehabilitation process.
However, recent research shows that hiring justice-involved individuals can benefit employers and the public. A study based on 1.3 million United States military enlistees revealed that those with previous involvement in the legal system were promoted faster and to higher ranks than other enlistees and demonstrated identical attrition rates due to poor performance as their peers without incarceration histories.
Another study of job performance among call center employees found that justice-involved individuals were less likely to quit than their counterparts without incarceration histories and had longer tenure.
Finally, a longitudinal study from Johns Hopkins Hospital similarly found that employees with incarceration histories exhibited a lower turnover rate than their non-justice-involved peers. In addition to having a moral obligation to rectify the harms of mass incarceration, it is in companies’ best interest to actively hire workers who are formerly incarcerated.
Less than 1/3 of the companies in our dataset have made a public commitment to fair chance hiring out of the 105 companies that we have researched.
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Sources:
Does a Criminal Past Predict Worker Performance? Evidence from One of America’s Largest Employers , Social Forces
Criminal Background and Job Performance, IZA Journal of Labor Policy
The Johns Hopkins Hospital Success in Hiring Ex-Offenders, Johns Hopkins Medicine
