Latest / Trumponomics / 63: How to Get a Job After You Commit a Felony
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Brought to you by Bank of America. Merrill Lynch Seeing
- 0:03Speaker 1: what others have seen, but uncovering what others may not.
- 0:06Speaker 1: Global Research that helps you harness disruption voted top Global
- 0:09Speaker 1: research from five years running. Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner, and
- 0:13Speaker 1: Smith Incorporated. When I got out and I had access
- 0:17Speaker 1: to the Internet of the cannabis, tarted to realize that
- 0:19Speaker 1: there were all these other ways, like all the all
- 0:21Speaker 1: these other points at which race can play roles, such
- 0:25Speaker 1: as you know, rebounding from something like this. Um. You know,
- 0:29Speaker 1: there's there's some data I've read that that white people
- 0:32Speaker 1: with a record are more likely to get hired than
- 0:36Speaker 1: black people with that one, and you know that that's
- 0:39Speaker 1: kind of shocking. Hello, and welcome back to Bloomberg Benchmark
- 0:51Speaker 1: Show about the global economy. I'm Scott Landman, an economics
- 0:54Speaker 1: editor with Bloomberg News in Washington, and I'm Keith Smith,
- 0:57Speaker 1: an editor with Bloomberg here in New York. All right, well,
- 1:00Speaker 1: if you're looking for a break from this post election madness,
- 1:03Speaker 1: you've come to the right place. Today on Benchmark, we're
- 1:06Speaker 1: turning our attention to an often overlooked corner of the U.
- 1:09Speaker 1: S economy. Our prison population. So here are some numbers
- 1:13Speaker 1: that we found really interesting. The US accounts for one
- 1:16Speaker 1: fifth of the world's prisoners, even though the nation only
- 1:19Speaker 1: has of the world's population. That's right, the US has
- 1:23Speaker 1: two point two million people in prison, and that's more
- 1:27Speaker 1: people than China actually has in prison, and China has
- 1:30Speaker 1: a population that's four times bigger than the United States.
- 1:33Speaker 1: All told, the US imprisons almost one per cent of
- 1:37Speaker 1: its population. That excludes other forms of detention, but it's still,
- 1:41Speaker 1: you know, pretty high number. And it's actually the highest
- 1:44Speaker 1: proportion in the world when you look at the share
- 1:47Speaker 1: of the population that's in jail. So here a Bloomberg.
- 1:50Speaker 1: We obviously love superlatives. So hearing highest proportion, that got
- 1:54Speaker 1: us thinking two questions, are there too many people in jail?
- 1:57Speaker 1: And is that very fact? You know? The extension in
- 2:00Speaker 1: that we make it tough for x cons to get
- 2:02Speaker 1: back to jobs, is holding back economic growth? Well, joining
- 2:05Speaker 1: us today to explore the issue as a woman in
- 2:07Speaker 1: her early thirties who was intimately familiar with what it's
- 2:11Speaker 1: like to go to prison and what it's like to
- 2:13Speaker 1: rejoin the workforce afterwards. Carry Blakinger was a senior at Cornell,
- 2:19Speaker 1: the Ivy League university in upstate New York, when she
- 2:22Speaker 1: was busted six years ago for heroin possession six ounces
- 2:26Speaker 1: to be precise. Kerry pleaded guilty to criminal possession of
- 2:30Speaker 1: a controlled substance Class B felony and served twenty one
- 2:34Speaker 1: months in prison out of a two and a half
- 2:36Speaker 1: year sentence. She did most of her time at Albion,
- 2:39Speaker 1: a medium security facility for women in upstate New York.
- 2:44Speaker 1: Following her release in September, Carry managed to get reinstated
- 2:48Speaker 1: at Cornell, graduated with a degree in English in December,
- 2:53Speaker 1: and got herself a job at the Ithaca Times. She
- 2:56Speaker 1: since moved on to the New York Daily News and
- 2:58Speaker 1: more recently moved to Texas, where she's now working as
- 3:02Speaker 1: a general assignment reporter at the Houston Chronicle. She's on
- 3:05Speaker 1: the phone with us now from Houston. Carry, thank you
- 3:08Speaker 1: so much for joining us today. Hi, thanks for having me. Carry.
- 3:12Speaker 1: Let's get one thing out of the way, something you've
- 3:15Speaker 1: been open about discussing. You're white. How much did your
- 3:19Speaker 1: race play in your ability to rebound from prison, earn
- 3:22Speaker 1: your degree and get a job in the industry of
- 3:25Speaker 1: your choosing? Well, you know, I think that, Uh it
- 3:30Speaker 1: obviously it played a huge role, but uh, it's really
- 3:33Speaker 1: difficult to point to an exact moment and say, oh,
- 3:37Speaker 1: this happened because I was white. Uh. It's something that
- 3:41Speaker 1: I sort of gradually realized in looking at data that
- 3:44Speaker 1: there are um a lot of indications that statistically this
- 3:49Speaker 1: rebound would have been less likely if I were a minority. Um.
- 3:54Speaker 1: I think that before going to prison, I hadn't really
- 3:58Speaker 1: thought a lot about the racial disparities in the criminal
- 4:02Speaker 1: justice system. Like I sort of I knew that they existed,
- 4:06Speaker 1: as I think everyone does, but it didn't really hit
- 4:09Speaker 1: home until I was actually seen it in front of me. Uh.
- 4:13Speaker 1: And and even then it was not immediately apparent because
- 4:17Speaker 1: in the county that I got arrested in, it's so
- 4:20Speaker 1: over overwhelmingly white that the county jail is also overwhelmingly white.
- 4:24Speaker 1: It's uh. In Thompton County, which is where it is,
- 4:27Speaker 1: the county jail is somewhere around twentysomething present black, which
- 4:32Speaker 1: is much lower than most other incarcerated populations. But that's
- 4:36Speaker 1: because the town is only about five percent block. So
- 4:41Speaker 1: it wasn't until I went to state prison. Um after
- 4:45Speaker 1: about ten months that I that I was seeing, you know,
- 4:50Speaker 1: around half of the population was black, and um, you know,
- 4:55Speaker 1: and that is that makes it much more obvious. That
- 4:58Speaker 1: sort of drives home these statistics that you might read about, um,
- 5:05Speaker 1: you know, I mean when you hear people's stories and
- 5:08Speaker 1: you realize why they're there and the differences in what
- 5:12Speaker 1: sort of crimes lands people in prison. So you know
- 5:16Speaker 1: this this was sort of gradual realization for me. And
- 5:19Speaker 1: then when I got out, uh and I had access
- 5:23Speaker 1: to the internet the cannon, I started to realize that
- 5:25Speaker 1: there were all these other ways, like all the all
- 5:28Speaker 1: these other points at which race can play roles, such
- 5:32Speaker 1: as you know, rebounding from something like this. Um, you know,
- 5:36Speaker 1: there's there's some data I've read that, uh that white
- 5:39Speaker 1: people with a record are more likely to get hired
- 5:43Speaker 1: than black people with that one, and you know that
- 5:46Speaker 1: that's kind of shocking. I certainly can't look back at
- 5:48Speaker 1: anyone's job and say, oh, I I would not have
- 5:51Speaker 1: gotten hired if I were a minority in this job.
- 5:54Speaker 1: But I know that overall, statistically it's true. And I
- 5:58Speaker 1: think that that's something that sometimes people struggle with when they,
- 6:01Speaker 1: you know, they'll ask me, well, at what point did
- 6:04Speaker 1: this play a role? And I sort of can't point
- 6:06Speaker 1: to any one thing and say definitively race with the
- 6:09Speaker 1: factor here, but I can say that, you know, there's
- 6:12Speaker 1: all these different points at which is really likely that
- 6:14Speaker 1: it played a role, and it's you know, statistically looking
- 6:17Speaker 1: at the data, is it looks like it's likely played
- 6:20Speaker 1: a role. If I can jump in, Um, one thing,
- 6:23Speaker 1: I you know, kind of as you're talking, I thought
- 6:25Speaker 1: was a little bit interesting. So obviously you know the
- 6:27Speaker 1: word fell in. You know, it carries a start, as
- 6:30Speaker 1: you know, a certain stigma, but in reality it's an
- 6:32Speaker 1: umbrella term for you know, a host of different things,
- 6:35Speaker 1: you know, ranging from you know, kind of what happened
- 6:38Speaker 1: with you, but then you know some much much more
- 6:40Speaker 1: like violent crimes. Um, why does society attach so much
- 6:44Speaker 1: stigma to felons given that you know kind of the
- 6:46Speaker 1: breadth of those crimes and some are just so much
- 6:48Speaker 1: worse than others. I mean, is this failure to properly
- 6:51Speaker 1: rehabilitate people holding back society and the economy. Well, to
- 6:55Speaker 1: answer your your first question, I think that, uh, one
- 6:58Speaker 1: of the reason people attached to speaking of sounds is
- 7:01Speaker 1: because a lot of people think of silence as rapists
- 7:05Speaker 1: and murderers, and it's actually, you know, as you said,
- 7:07Speaker 1: a much broader class. I mean, this can include drunk
- 7:09Speaker 1: driving charges, even in situations where no one's actually been injured. UM.
- 7:12Speaker 1: Not to minimize the severity of drunk driving, but I'm
- 7:16Speaker 1: just saying I think that's not what a lot of
- 7:18Speaker 1: people think of when they think of a felon UM.
- 7:22Speaker 1: So I think that that's part of the reason why
- 7:25Speaker 1: there's this stigma, because people sort of just assume this
- 7:28Speaker 1: means murderers and rapists, you know, and and also you know,
- 7:32Speaker 1: Sony's don't go away in most states. In some states
- 7:35Speaker 1: there are options to ex fund or steal your record. UM.
- 7:39Speaker 1: But something that's twenty years old can have just as
- 7:42Speaker 1: much impact on your ability to get a job as
- 7:44Speaker 1: something that's five years old. It really just depends on
- 7:47Speaker 1: how employers ask, how they ask about it, and how
- 7:50Speaker 1: they choose to take time to account. If I can
- 7:53Speaker 1: ask you a personal question, Carrie, when you were looking
- 7:56Speaker 1: at jobs after um, your experience in prison, how did
- 8:00Speaker 1: you handle that question? So, my my first job at
- 8:04Speaker 1: the at the Times, it was not a question. Everything
- 8:08Speaker 1: you knew. It was a small town like there's no
- 8:10Speaker 1: chance i'd he was unaware. Um, so, uh, you know,
- 8:15Speaker 1: it's it's a small, very liberal town, and um, you
- 8:18Speaker 1: know this was just sort of h it was a
- 8:21Speaker 1: nice little homie paper and a nice community, so it
- 8:25Speaker 1: was not as likely to affect me there in that job. Okay,
- 8:29Speaker 1: but that's then moving up to the other one the
- 8:31Speaker 1: other places, right, So since then, Um, I've I've found that,
- 8:36Speaker 1: you know, I've applied for a number of jobs, and
- 8:38Speaker 1: I've only had one job that asked about it and
- 8:42Speaker 1: actually called me back. Every other time that I've had
- 8:44Speaker 1: to check the box, uh, I've never gotten a callback.
- 8:48Speaker 1: You know, I've never heard anything. Um, although I've I've
- 8:51Speaker 1: gotten a you know, a decent call back right on
- 8:53Speaker 1: jobs that I did not have to check the box.
- 8:55Speaker 1: So that's not a definitive study or any conclusion, but
- 8:59Speaker 1: you know it, and totally it does. It has seemed
- 9:01Speaker 1: to make a difference in my personal experience of employment.
- 9:04Speaker 1: My current job is the only one that I've ever
- 9:07Speaker 1: checked off the box floor and not only gotten a
- 9:09Speaker 1: call back, but then actually got hired. Um. The Daily
- 9:11Speaker 1: News did not ask any climes did not ask, although
- 9:15Speaker 1: I should have assumed that in journalism, employers would be
- 9:18Speaker 1: likely to google you, so I have to do that
- 9:20Speaker 1: in my case. People know. But I do think that when,
- 9:26Speaker 1: when and whether they ask uh is sort of indicative
- 9:29Speaker 1: of how they're they're going to handle the answer. Right now.
- 9:33Speaker 1: And we talk about how many people are in prison
- 9:35Speaker 1: in this country, thinking about your own experience, how many
- 9:39Speaker 1: of the people you saw during your time in prison
- 9:42Speaker 1: should not have been there in your opinion, or we're
- 9:45Speaker 1: serving too long relative to the crimes they committed. I mean,
- 9:50Speaker 1: I think, I think that's a really hard question to answer.
- 9:53Speaker 1: But uh, but one thing that I did notice is
- 9:56Speaker 1: that I feel like, uh, you know, in a lot
- 10:00Speaker 1: of cases, you know, well, in almost all cases, prison
- 10:04Speaker 1: did not help. It's not like, uh, somebody went to
- 10:09Speaker 1: prison and came out and was better able to address life,
- 10:13Speaker 1: Like That's that's pretty rare that someone comes out and
- 10:17Speaker 1: does better after prison than they did before. So, uh
- 10:21Speaker 1: So in that sense, you know, almost you know, almost
- 10:24Speaker 1: no one should should be there if that's the measure.
- 10:28Speaker 1: If the goal is rehabilitation. Of course, the goal is
- 10:31Speaker 1: not solely rehabilitation. Part of the goal of prison is punishment,
- 10:35Speaker 1: so you know, that's the more subjective thing I probably
- 10:37Speaker 1: can't really speak to. All Right, Well, we're gonna take
- 10:40Speaker 1: a break for a word from our sponsor and we'll
- 10:43Speaker 1: be back shortly. Brought to you by Bank of America,
- 10:56Speaker 1: Mary Lynch seeing what others have seen, but uncovering what
- 10:59Speaker 1: others may not. Global Research that helps you Harness disruption
- 11:02Speaker 1: voted top global research from five years running. Mary Lynch, Pierce,
- 11:06Speaker 1: Venner and Smith Incorporated. All Right, welcome back. So let's
- 11:19Speaker 1: talk a little bit more about the economic issues around
- 11:22Speaker 1: the job market. Uh. You know, obviously you had one
- 11:25Speaker 1: experience carry at at a facility and upstate New York. Uh.
- 11:30Speaker 1: But you know they're with with two million people in
- 11:33Speaker 1: prison nationwide, uh, and many more people with a criminal record. Um.
- 11:38Speaker 1: What percentage of people would you actually say are are employable?
- 11:44Speaker 1: And should employers be more open to people who are
- 11:48Speaker 1: desperately trying to get back in the world. It's really
- 11:52Speaker 1: hard to say, Uh, what what percentage of people getting
- 11:56Speaker 1: out are employable? You know, everyone comes out with a
- 11:58Speaker 1: different skill set and you know, a different mindset is
- 12:01Speaker 1: to whether they're interested in being rehabilitated. But I think generally,
- 12:07Speaker 1: if people are in a position where they're making the
- 12:11Speaker 1: effort to look for employment. That's probably would indicator that
- 12:15Speaker 1: they're interested in some amount of rehabilitation. I mean, obviously
- 12:20Speaker 1: employers are going to take into consideration different things like
- 12:23Speaker 1: how long it's been since the crime is committed, and
- 12:27Speaker 1: you know what the crime was. I think that employers, Uh,
- 12:32Speaker 1: you know, she considered not dismissing felons as a whole,
- 12:36Speaker 1: because obviously some are interested in rehabilitation and can make
- 12:41Speaker 1: great employees. Let me ask you a question care about, um,
- 12:44Speaker 1: kind of a little bit personal. When you were there,
- 12:48Speaker 1: how many people did you see actively trying to take
- 12:51Speaker 1: advantage of resources that were available to them to support
- 12:54Speaker 1: rehabilitation or to support a more successful job search upon
- 12:59Speaker 1: their release. Was that common? Well, there aren't really a
- 13:03Speaker 1: whole lot of resources to do that behind bars. Um.
- 13:06Speaker 1: You know, if you're incarcerated in a state prison, you're
- 13:10Speaker 1: you know, you're you're far from home, so it's not
- 13:13Speaker 1: like you can sort of start a job search or
- 13:15Speaker 1: anything to to get on your feet from behind bars.
- 13:20Speaker 1: There are limited college programs, and you know those are
- 13:23Speaker 1: typically fo people are interested in those. Uh you know, so,
- 13:28Speaker 1: I mean I know one woman who was very inspirational
- 13:31Speaker 1: story to me. Anyways, she came in with no high
- 13:35Speaker 1: school degree, and she got her j D. And then
- 13:38Speaker 1: she started college classes and then by the time she
- 13:41Speaker 1: was ready to be released, she she gotten a college
- 13:44Speaker 1: degree behind bars. You know. So I think that's an
- 13:48Speaker 1: example of someone who's obviously trying to make the most
- 13:49Speaker 1: of the resources, but those resources are are very limited.
- 13:53Speaker 1: So are they living in the sense that there are
- 13:56Speaker 1: you know, just there's so few and the few offerings
- 13:59Speaker 1: that are made get filled up really quickly, or they've
- 14:01Speaker 1: limited in that like there aren't there isn't a lot
- 14:04Speaker 1: of demand. Uh. There there's limited in that there's not
- 14:09Speaker 1: a lot of resources and that they fill up quickly.
- 14:11Speaker 1: There's also uh you know, there are are also vocational
- 14:15Speaker 1: classes um which uh I think not as useful to
- 14:19Speaker 1: as many people, but you know, people take them. There's
- 14:21Speaker 1: g D classes. People take those. Uh. But you know,
- 14:25Speaker 1: what what people do to build their time in prison
- 14:28Speaker 1: doesn't always translate to what's going to happen on the outside. Uh.
- 14:33Speaker 1: So that can be you know, that can be problematic.
- 14:36Speaker 1: But people that have completed some college education in prison
- 14:40Speaker 1: have a lower cidivism rate than those that haven't. Let
- 14:44Speaker 1: me ask you about the national landscape for prison reform
- 14:48Speaker 1: or sentencing reform. Uh. You know, we've the country as
- 14:52Speaker 1: elected Donald Trump as president, Republicans both houses of Congress.
- 14:57Speaker 1: Trump's platform was was largely lauren order. He supports prison privatization,
- 15:02Speaker 1: doesn't want to restore voting rights to uh to ex felons.
- 15:07Speaker 1: At the same time, there is kind of this bipartisan
- 15:10Speaker 1: sense that, you know, some of the sentencing laws were
- 15:14Speaker 1: too strict. People are getting too long sentences for things
- 15:17Speaker 1: like drug possession, obviously, and that you know that that
- 15:20Speaker 1: benefits you with the sensing laws being changed just before, Um,
- 15:24Speaker 1: I think you you went to prison. What do you
- 15:27Speaker 1: make of the landscape on these issues right now? Um,
- 15:30Speaker 1: what do you think is going to happen? Well, I
- 15:34Speaker 1: think that there has been strong bipartisan support for change
- 15:38Speaker 1: for a number of years now, and I don't think
- 15:41Speaker 1: that a Trump presidency would unilaterally change that. And just um,
- 15:47Speaker 1: you know, one more personal question, how have you been
- 15:51Speaker 1: able to stay clean all these years? Kerry? Uh? For me,
- 15:57Speaker 1: that was a lot about finding something else to fill
- 16:00Speaker 1: the spot in my life that Heroin took up. Uh,
- 16:04Speaker 1: and for me that's been UH. Journalism has you know,
- 16:07Speaker 1: has been, uh, something I could really throw myself into.
- 16:11Speaker 1: And I think that for a lot of people who
- 16:15Speaker 1: stay clean, it's about finding something else to to fill
- 16:19Speaker 1: that spot, to help you become a different person than
- 16:21Speaker 1: the person that you were back then. Well, let's let's
- 16:24Speaker 1: come back to the you know, the prison population, the
- 16:28Speaker 1: prospects for economic growth. You have this tight job market
- 16:33Speaker 1: these days, they're they're employers who complain that they can't
- 16:36Speaker 1: find workers. You know, we we've been talking about how
- 16:39Speaker 1: you know, maybe maybe employers are too strict with not
- 16:42Speaker 1: giving felon ex felons a look in their job applications. Uh.
- 16:46Speaker 1: Donald Trump says he wants to put million people back
- 16:49Speaker 1: to work and double the rate of growth. Is it
- 16:51Speaker 1: possible to do that, you think without turning to uh,
- 16:56Speaker 1: people who are who are out of prison for for
- 17:00Speaker 1: criminal convictions. Carry. Well, I'm not an econmist so I'm
- 17:04Speaker 1: probably not that qualified to answer that question. But I
- 17:07Speaker 1: think anyone can say that it's easier to make that
- 17:10Speaker 1: a possibility if felons are more readily included in the
- 17:13Speaker 1: job market. Let me ask you a question, carry personally,
- 17:16Speaker 1: just kind of like adding a little bit of color
- 17:18Speaker 1: to this, did you see people that you knew while
- 17:21Speaker 1: you were in prison struggle to find jobs, even though
- 17:24Speaker 1: you know, knowing them personally, they were perfectly capable. Yes, Um,
- 17:28Speaker 1: there's there's been I I see you know, on my
- 17:31Speaker 1: Facebook speed I have, uh, you know, I keep in
- 17:34Speaker 1: touch with a lot of people, and I do see
- 17:36Speaker 1: a lot of them struggling to find employment. Uh. And
- 17:41Speaker 1: and I think that makes it hard to stay on
- 17:43Speaker 1: the right track. If if that's uh, it's that's a
- 17:47Speaker 1: big stumbling block. I see that there are certain fields
- 17:51Speaker 1: in which people seem to have more luck. Uh. Seems
- 17:55Speaker 1: that a lot of people that are doing well have
- 17:57Speaker 1: gone into advocacy and non profit work, and that seems
- 18:01Speaker 1: to be a feel that is currently relatively open minded
- 18:06Speaker 1: to hiring people with a criminal background. But some people
- 18:10Speaker 1: that have black hounds in other fields, it's it's much
- 18:12Speaker 1: more difficult. All right, Well, Kerry, let's leave it there.
- 18:16Speaker 1: Thank you so much for joining us. This has been
- 18:19Speaker 1: a really fascinating discussion. And uh, you know, I'm personally
- 18:23Speaker 1: gratified that that that journalism has that that that you're
- 18:27Speaker 1: part of our profession and in that you know that
- 18:30Speaker 1: has helped you stay clean. Like like you said, to
- 18:33Speaker 1: give you that drive in your life. Well, thank you
- 18:37Speaker 1: and thanks for having me on today. Al Right, Benchmark
- 18:40Speaker 1: will be back next week and until then, you can
- 18:42Speaker 1: find us on the Bloomberg Terminal and Bloomberg dot com,
- 18:45Speaker 1: as well as on iTunes, pocket casts, and Stitcher. While
- 18:48Speaker 1: you're there, take a minute to rate and review the
- 18:50Speaker 1: show so more listeners can find us and let us
- 18:53Speaker 1: know what you thought of the show. You can talk
- 18:55Speaker 1: to us and follow us on Twitter at Scott Landman.
- 18:58Speaker 1: You can find me a by Kate Smith, and you
- 19:01Speaker 1: can also find our guest carry At at carry b
- 19:04Speaker 1: l A. Thanks for listening, See you next time. Brought
- 19:18Speaker 1: to you by Bank of America. Merrill Lynch Seeing what
- 19:21Speaker 1: others have seen, but uncovering what others may not. Global
- 19:24Speaker 1: Research that helps you Harness disruption voted top global research
- 19:28Speaker 1: from five years running. Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner and Smith
- 19:31Speaker 1: Incorporated