Grapes of Recidivism: Expanding Employment Opportunities for America’s Ex-Cons

U.S. correctional facilities discharge more than 650,000 former inmates back into American communities every year, yet two-thirds are expected to return to prison within three years. Since this cycle of release and re-incarceration remains a key contributor to America’s $63.4 billion annual expenditure on prison systems, the U.S. must capitalize on opportunities to more effectively integrate former offenders back into society.Inmates returning to civilian life without marketable skills or a stable living environment remain exceedingly vulnerable to recidivism. By its own admission, the U.S. Department of Justice notes that “with no job, no money, and no place to live, returnees often find themselves facing the same pressures and temptations that landed them in prison in the first place.” With inadequate job prospects identified as a primary cause of recidivism, questions inevitably arise about where thousands of ex-criminals could plausibly hope to find work. The answer to this question potentially lies in the fields and orchards of America’s farms.While converting hordes of former prisoners into farm workers may seem illogical, the dire scarcity of labor in the American agricultural industry argues otherwise. In 2014, U.S. farmers reportedly faced labor shortages of up to 30 percent. For a farming giant like California, fallow fields translate into nearly $3 billion in lost revenues.A majority of U.S. agricultural jobs were formerly filled by migrant laborers—70 percent of whom came from Mexico—but that supposedly inexhaustible supply of farm workers has now partially dried up. Low-skilled, undocumented immigrants continue to evade migration authorities, but the number of undocumented workers has dwindled. In 1999, U.S. authorities detained 1.5 million people attempting to illegally cross into America, a figure that fell to around 350,000 in 2012. This decrease can be partly attributed to organic Mexican demographic changes, which have seen the birthrate fall from seven to a little over two children per mother in the last fifty years. Additionally, enhanced deportation efforts by the Obama administration, anemic U.S. economic growth, and the doubling of Border Patrol personnel since 9/11 also caused reductions in northward migration flows.The number of people released yearly from American correctional facilities and a shortage of farm labor combine to create an unexpected convergence of supply and demand. The viability of an effort to seize this opportunity depends upon several factors. Expansion of nationwide programs that seek to give inmates agricultural vocational training must be accompanied by a commensurate infrastructure to monitor their progress as they transition to life outside prison.A recent Congressional Research Service report supported a holistic approach to reducing recidivism, noting that “[the] literature suggests that programs focusing on work training and placement, drug and mental health treatment, and housing assistance have proven to be effective.” To be fair, using convicts to address a shortage of agricultural personnel has been tried before, most notably by Georgia in 2011 after a mass exodus of undocumented workers to other states. Results varied for a number of reasons, the most glaring of which was an insufficient organizational structure. However, these shortcomings are identifiable and more importantly rectifiable.The establishment of health services and transitional housing facilities in rural areas to serve these former convicts, along with training and a guaranteed job on an American farm, could together satisfy most of the measures of efficacy mentioned in the CRS report. A multifaceted approach that included paid work, counseling/drug treatment, and accommodations would also provide the kind of structured environment inmates are accustomed to, reducing the stress that ensues following the swift change from prison life to total self-reliance.Mixed outcomes from unsophisticated pilot projects like those attempted in Georgia should not obscure the very real benefits that could result from using former inmates to gather America’s harvests. Temporarily removed from the communities in which their offenses occurred, inmates will face an environment less conducive to bad behavior. Through wages earned outside the prison system, former inmates can also help to reverse the increasingly dire fiscal trend of the U.S. correctional system. In many cases, it is now far more expensive to imprison a young person than to finance a university education. This represents a clear economic opportunity for American lawmakers. By employing English-speaking citizens, farm owners can avoid the legal and moral ambiguities inherent in hiring undocumented laborers. Finally, inmates could begin to gain the essential job skills they will need to remain functional members of civil society.Implementing such a wide-reaching program will not be easy, and careful coordination with willing farm owners and community stakeholders will be crucial in its success. Recent congressional prison reform legislation and statements on social justice in the wake of unrest in Ferguson, Missouri represent steps in the right direction. As the budgetary outlays of the U.S. prison system continue to grow despite decreases in violent crime, imaginative solutions must be explored if the United States is serious about reducing what remains the highest incarceration rate worldwide.Garret Mitchell is a third-year student in the Elliott School's European and Eurasian Studies Program. His focus is on Russia. He can be contacted at grmitch27@gwu.edu."Agriculture Workers on a Strawberry Farm" by Nahuel Berger / World Bank is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0