10 AMERICAN BLUES THEATER Over 600,000 people make the difficult transition from prisons to the community each year and although there are many challenges in the transition, the roadblocks to securing a job have particularly severe consequences. Employment helps formerly incarcerated people gain economic stability after release and reduces the likelihood that they return to prison, promoting greater public safety to the benefit of everyone. But despite the overwhelming benefits of employment, people who have been to prison are largely shut out of the labor market. Using a nationally representative dataset, we provide the first-ever estimate of unemployment among the 5 million formerly incarcerated people living in the United States. Our analysis shows that formerly incarcerated people are unemployed at a rate of over 27%—higher than the total U.S. unemployment rate during any historical period, including the Great Depression. Our estimate of the unemployment rate establishes that formerly incarcerated people want to work, but face structural barriers to securing employment, particularly within the period immediately following release. For those who are Black or Hispanic—especially women—status as “formerly incarcerated” reduces their employment chances even more. This perpetual labor market punishment creates a counterproductive system of release and poverty, hurting everyone involved: employers, the taxpayers, and certainly formerly incarcerated people looking to break the cycle. Prior research suggests that employers discriminate against those with criminal records, even if they claim not to. Although employers express willingness to hire people with criminal records, evidence shows that having a record reduces employer callback rates by 50%. What employers say appears to contradict what they actually do when it comes to hiring decisions. Our analysis also shows that formerly incarcerated people are more likely to be “active” in the labor market than the general public. Among 25-44 year old formerly incarcerated people, 93.3% are either employed or actively looking for work, compared to 83.8% among their general population peers of similar ages. Though unemployment among formerly incarcerated people is five times higher than among the general public, these results show that they want to work. Unemployment among this population is a matter of public will, policy, and practice, not differences in aspirations. UNEMPLOYMENT AMONG FORMERLY INCARCERATED PEOPLE In The Spitfire Grill “Percy” is able to get a job at the local diner, but many formerly incarcerated people in the United States struggle to find work. This article from the Prison Policy Initiative—edited here for length—takes a closer look at these issues.