BILL ANALYSIS �
AB 2077
Page 1
Date of Hearing: April 18, 2012
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON LABOR AND EMPLOYMENT
Sandre Swanson, Chair
AB 2077 (Davis) - As Introduced: February 23, 2012
SUBJECT : Postrelease community supervision: employment
opportunities.
SUMMARY : Requires the Employment Development Department (EDD)
to create a list of employers in the state who are willing to
hire formerly incarcerated persons and make the information
available to the public. Specifically, this bill :
1)Requires the EDD to gather information about specific
employers that are willing to employ people who have been
incarcerated in a state prison or county jail and do the
following:
a) Make a list of employers who are willing to employ
people who have been incarcerated in a state prison or
county jail that is sorted by county and make it available
to the public on their website and upon request in their
offices.
b) Send the list and updates, as necessary, to supervising
county agencies, as described in subdivision (a) of Section
3451 of the Penal Code.
2)Requires supervising county agencies, as defined, to provide
each person entering into a postrelease community supervision
agreement with the list produced by EDD for their respective
counties.
EXISTING LAW :
1)Establishes EDD to administer employment services, handle
audit and collection of payroll taxes, maintain employment
records, and administer Unemployment Insurance, State
Disability Insurance, Workforce Investment, and Labor Market
Information programs.
2)Establishes the Postrelease Community Supervision Act of 2011
to reduce the recidivism rate among the state's criminal
offenders.
AB 2077
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FISCAL EFFECT : Unknown
COMMENTS : According to the author, the state's ongoing economic
recession and 10.9 percent unemployment rate has made it
difficult for Californians to find jobs. The author states that
the job market is even more challenging for ex-offenders (EOs)
because this population faces a rate of unemployment that is two
to three times higher than the average unemployed Californian.
A 2008 report from the Pew Center on the States titled "One in
100: Behind Bars in America," (Pew Report) found that the United
States (U.S.) incarcerates more people than any other country in
the world. The Pew Report states that in 2008, the U.S. penal
system held more than 2.3 million adults; which is more than
China's 1.5 million prisoners and the 890,000 individuals
incarcerated in Russia. The Pew Report finds that more than 1
in 100 adults in America are incarcerated, yet the rates of
incarceration for African Americans and Latinos are much higher.
In California, research indicates that African Americans and
Latinos are also disproportionately represented in the
population of incarcerated adults. As noted in a 2008 UC
Berkeley Law study titled "A Higher Hurdle: Barriers to
Employment for Formerly Incarcerated Women," (UC Study) African
Americans have the highest rates of incarceration in the state
while Latinos comprise the largest number of incarcerated
people. According to data from the California Department of
Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR), as of April 4, 2012, the
state has 139,038 individuals in prison. According to CDCR's
semi-annual population data, 29.1 percent of this population is
African American while 40.5 percent is Latino. This rate of
incarceration is notable considering that U.S. Census data
indicates that African Americans represent 6.2 percent of
California's population.
On May 23, 2011, due to California's large prison population and
related prison overcrowding, the Supreme Court ordered the state
to reduce its population by 30,000 inmates. On April 4, 2011,
Governor Brown signed AB 109 (Chapter 15, Statutes of 2011), a
budget trailer bill known as Public Safety Realignment. AB 109
took effect on October 1, 2011 and, among other things,
requires all offenders released from prison who do not have
current convictions for serious or violent felonies, who are not
third strikers, and who are not high risk sex offenders to be
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subject to post-release supervision (PRS) by counties rather
than subject to state parole supervision.
As more PRS inmates enter into the community, the need for
employment opportunities EOs will increase. Research indicates,
however, that imprisonment often limits an individual's
employment opportunities and earnings. A 2003 study titled
"Employer Demand For Ex-Offenders: Recent Evidence from Los
Angeles (Holzer et al.)," (Employer Study) found that the
reduction in employment opportunities and earnings that often
follow an individual's incarceration is associated with
employers' willingness, or unwillingness, to hire EOs. The
Employer Study found that employers' willingness to hire
ex-offenders is very limited, even relative to other groups of
disadvantaged workers, such as welfare recipients and the long
term unemployed. The Employer Study also notes that the
employers' willingness to hire EOs varies with particular
establishments and job characteristics.
According to the Employer Study, over 40 percent of employers
would "probably not" or "definitely not" be willing to hire an
applicant with a criminal record. In addition, about 20 percent
of employers would "definitely" or "probably" consider an
applicant with a criminal history, while 35 percent of
employers' response would depend on the crime that the applicant
had committed. Reasons for employers' hesitation to consider
EOs for employment include a perception of an applicant's
criminal history as a signal of the applicant's potential
untrustworthiness or concern about the applicant becoming a
problematic employee. Fear of litigation was also contributes
to employers' unwillingness to hire EOs, especially since many
individuals are barred by law from certain occupations,
including those that require contact with children or jobs that
explicitly prohibits the employment of individuals with felony
convictions.
However, a 2003 study titled "Employment Barriers Facing
Ex-Offenders (Holzer et. al)," (EO Study) found that that
employers in industries with little customer contact, including
manufacturing and construction, were more willing to hire EOs
than others such as the retail trade and service sector. The EO
study states that employer reluctance is greatest when the
offense in question was violent and least when the applicant's
offense was a non-violent drug offense.
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According to the author, there is no current law that compels
EDD to gather information about specific employers who are
willing to employ people who have been incarcerated in a state
prison or county jail. The author states that there is an EDD
survey that employers fill out that solicits information to help
target potential candidates for employment. According to the
author, this survey does not ask whether or not the employer
would be willing to hire an individual that has been
incarcerated. While knowledge of the names and locations of
these employers would benefit EOs and the county officials that
are charged with their supervision, requiring EDD to conduct
employer surveys may not be the most effective or feasible way
to capture this information.
According to EDD, the department has no existing process to
survey employers about their willingness to hire EOs. EDD would
have to create a separate survey and send it out to employers
with no guarantee that employers would respond. According to
the EDD, a majority of the surveys they currently create and use
for labor market information are done at the behest of the
federal government and are federally funded. EDD notes that the
federal government receives copies of the surveys they fund,
therefore adding an additional question related to an employer's
willingness to hire EOs to an existing federally funded survey
would not be an option.
In addition, EDD notes that the non-federally funded employer
surveys that they conduct are sent out on an annual basis and
would not meet the specifications of this bill. According to
the department, the number of employers in California fluctuates
by approximately 125,000 annually. As a result, if this bill
were to become law, EDD would have to dedicate an employee to
track the number of employers who come into the state and leave
the state in order to comply with this bills provision to survey
employers as "necessary" to maintain an updated an accurate list
on the EDD website.
While EDD oversees workforce investment activities, Local
Workforce Investment Boards (LWIBs) are already working in over
48 Local Workforce Areas throughout the state and may be better
suited to provide information about local employers' willingness
to hire EOs. According to the California Workforce Investment
Board (CWIB), one of the roles that LWIBs play in their
respective communities is that of broker between employers,
government agencies and various programs to connect people to
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the employment they need. LWIBs regularly gather information as
a part of their workforce intelligence activities and work to
serve as the voice of their communities by articulating the
needs of individuals looking for training and jobs. According
to CWIB, this includes individuals that may have special needs
or require more intensive services, including people who are
released from the correctional system.
Considering the existing relationships that LWIBs have in their
respective communities, the author may wish to consider an
amendment that would direct LWIBs, rather than EDD, to create a
list of employers who are willing to hire EOs. In addition, the
author may wish to remove the provision that requires EDD to
make the list of employers willing to hire EOs available on its
website and instead direct LWIBs to share the list of employers
willing to hire EOs with the county entities responsible for
postrelease supervision.
ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT
In a letter expressing support for this bill, the California
Catholic Conference (CCC) writes that the bleak unemployment
rates for former inmates often leads them back into a life of
crime and results in a threat to public safety and a further
drain on taxpayers to re-incarcerate them. Writing in support,
the California Attorneys for Criminal Justice (CACJ) writes that
unemployment is often two to three times greater among former
inmates than those who have never been incarcerated. According
to CACJ, this reality has negative economic implications for
families that are affected and public safety.
This bill, upon passage out of Labor Committee, is
double-referred to Public Safety Committee.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees
California Attorneys for Criminal Justice
California Catholic Conference, Inc
California Public Defenders Association
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Opposition
None on file
Analysis Prepared by : Shannon McKinley / L. & E. / (916)
319-2091