States Show How Criminal Justice Reform Can Help Millions of American Workers

Scott Lincicome and Ilana BlumsackThe Collateral Consequences Resource Center (CCRC) recently released new reports oncriminal record expungement policies andmarijuana legalization and expungement policies across the country. State officials report that over 60,000 records have beenautomatically expunged in Utah since the beginning of 2022, and in Missouri, over 5,000 marijuana convictions have beenautomatically expunged since legalizing recreational marijuana just this past December.This is welcome news —for these individuals and the U.S. labor market more broadly.As we discuss in ourchapter onCriminal Justice inEmpowering the New American Worker, an estimated 30 ‐​plus percent of U.S. adults have a criminal record of some kind, and more than 8  percent—almost 20 millionAmericans—had a felony record in 2010 (see Figure 1). Often, these records constitute significant barriers to stable employment, thus contributing to increasedrecidivism and reducing incomes and economic mobility. In fact, a  study published last yearreported that 64 percent of unemployed men in their 30s had previously been arrested, and nearly half (46 percent) had been convicted of a  crime. And these employment barriers exist for not only those convicted of crimes, but even individuals who were acquitted or had the charges against them dropped.Fortunately, states are beginning to enact reforms to improve employment outcomes for individuals with criminal records:Since 2018,21 states—often w...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - Category: American Health Authors: Source Type: blogs