A staggering number of people in the United States are eventually involved, in some capacity, with the criminal justice system. More than half a million people are released from state and federal prison each year. Around one-third of U.S. adults have some sort of criminal record (including arrest records or charges without convictions). These people—like all people—need to earn a living. Research shows that people who secure high-quality jobs after returning home from jail or prison are less likely to be reincarcerated.

But finding good work—a career, not just a gig—with a history of system involvement can be enormously difficult. This is the point of workforce development: to provide job training and career development resources for people in jail, pretrial, or those convicted of crimes. Such training benefits not just those involved but also their communities, public safety, and even the economy as a whole. When it is done right, everyone benefits. It helps businesses find qualified workers, provides people with stability and support, and helps break the cycle of crime.

How does workforce development work?

Quality employment programs combine job-readiness training, hands-on work experience, and job placement services, along with wraparound supports like mental health care, trauma-informed case management, and assistance with housing and transportation. They help people earn industry-recognized credentials in fields that offer high-quality jobs—jobs that, unlike many, are actually open to people with criminal records.

What are the legal employment barriers for people who have been incarcerated?

While opportunities vary widely from region to region, the number of careers unavailable to people with criminal records can be surprising. The major restrictions on post-release employment are rules that limit the ability of businesses to hire workers with certain convictions and that restrict access to certain occupational and business licenses. That can foreclose work in fields like education and health care and even limit people’s ability to pursue self-employment.

Even when people with criminal records can find work, they still struggle to find rewarding and stable work—not just because of legal barriers but often because of bias and discrimination against people who have been incarcerated. Past incarceration can lead to not only fewer job opportunities but substantially reduced wages and earnings. These hardships are also borne by families and communities, which contributes to generational poverty and enduring economic inequality.

What effect does job training have on people who’ve been incarcerated and their communities?

Quality workforce development programs have proven to benefit both the labor market in need of skilled workers and public safety. Postsecondary education opportunities in prison correlate with greater employment rates after release. And people who enroll in college in prison and who engage in careers—not transitional or short-term work—after release have a lower likelihood of recidivating and a greater likelihood of earning living wages compared to their counterparts who did not.

How has workforce development succeeded?

In California, a national leader in workforce development, a study found that participants in some programs supported with grants from the California Workforce Development Board saw quarterly employment gains of up to nearly 12 percentage points and quarterly earnings gains of up to about 33 percent. The California Prison Industry Authority, which has a vocational program for people in custody, has been linked to reduced rates of rearrest, reconviction, and reincarceration.

The Michigan Department of Corrections Vocational Village program, one of the most successful programs in the country, provides intensive, hands-on job training in various building trades, commercial driver’s licenses and forklift operation, automotive technology, and more. Students are housed together and given access to specialized equipment to simulate actual work. The program has an overall employment rate of 60 percent and a recidivism rate of about 10 percent compared to the state recidivism rate of approximately 27 percent.

What makes workforce development effective?

To succeed, workforce development programs need to help enrollees find good jobs, not just any jobs. That means that the type and quality of training on offer matter enormously. In some states, the available vocational training provides credentials that don’t fully help participants find work—like in New York, where many incarcerated people earn Department of Corrections and Community Supervision–issued certificates instead of industry standard credentials.

The most successful programs, like Michigan’s, have a curriculum that matches that received by people outside the system, and the programs are designed in collaboration with local unions and businesses. That makes a difference. Training should be aligned with the local labor market and the needs of the participants: the best job training possible will not help if all the jobs in the sector are hundreds of miles away or not open to people with criminal histories.

And the programs need to be comprehensive, including training, hands-on experience, placement support, and other services, such as housing and mental health support. Analysis of programs in California shows that training that results in a credential and supportive services together are “the most consistent predictor of employment and increased income.”

How can workforce development be expanded?

California is already a leader in support for workforce development. It now has an opportunity to expand the population of people eligible for these programs. The Jails to Jobs program would apply these strategies at the pretrial stage, by connecting people charged with low-level, nonviolent offenses to sector-specific workforce training and wraparound services as an alternative to incarceration. By intervening at the pretrial stage, California could reap all the benefits workforce development has for economic stability and reduced recidivism as well as the positive effects that come with keeping people out of jail.

Just 24 hours in jail increases the likelihood of rearrest and carries lasting destabilizing consequences, like losing income and housing. A criminal conviction makes regaining or finding those things even more difficult. Both workforce development and pretrial diversion have worked in California to deliver public safety benefits and greater stability for people facing criminal charges. Combining them would have obvious benefits, preventing the harms incarceration causes both to people and to communities.

Training people who are incarcerated and those facing criminal charges for stable and high-quality employment is good for the economy and good for public safety. And it’s good for the people it helps to find stability after their encounters with the criminal justice system.