Post-prison Employment Quality and Future Criminal Justice Contact

Figure 3.

Effect of Highest-Quality Versus Lowest-Quality Employment on Future Criminal Justice Contact

Source: Author's compilation from data from the Michigan Unemployment Insurance Agency and the Michigan Workforce Development Agency.

Note: These figures represent estimates of the effect of finding employment after release from prison in an industry that offers highest-quality employment (relative to finding employment in an industry that offers lowest-quality employment) on the cumulative likelihood of experiencing an arrest (left panel) or returning to prison (right panel) in each of the eight quarters after finding employment. Highest-quality industries include manufacturing and transportation and warehousing; lowest-quality industries include employment services. Estimates are expressed in percentage points, with negative values indicating reduced future criminal justice contact for those who find highest-quality employment. The estimates with solid-line 95 percent confidence intervals represent the naïve difference in future criminal justice contact between those who find highest- and lowest-quality employment. The estimates with dashed-line 95 percent confidence intervals represent the estimated difference in future criminal justice contact between those who find highest- and lowest-quality employment that accounts for differential selection into employment quality using inverse propensity score weighting.