Breaking the cycle of stigmatisation
For those people who do not abide to the established archetype of the white, cisgender and middle-class person, stigmatisation has recurrently conditioned their life experiences. Said stigmatisation can take the form of the school-to-prison pipeline (see Bakayoko’s “Break the cycle: ending school-to-prison pipelines in the UK”), increased police presence in certain neighbourhoods and scarce job opportunities, amongst many others. Those who are already affected by said discrimination can be further stigmatised if they end up being sentenced to jail. Still, even when people have served their sentences, said stigma does not end. This post includes examples such as Jazmon’s to illustrate how stigmatisation does not exclusively affect people’s personal lives but also their potential professional careers.
Employment plays an important role in the reintegration of prison leavers. Many studies have found that employment rates are higher for those who have postsecondary education and/or have taken part in industry or educational programs–this is why Breakthrough’s role in providing educational programs, which will be discussed later, is essential. It has also been proven that employment lessens the chances of recidivism. Still, despite the clear benefits of employment, only 25% of prison leavers are employed after release. The rate is even lower for female prison leavers. This can be due to two different reasons:
Formal or legal restrictions
Lack of previous experience or educational training
Company’s refusal to hire people with criminal records
Stigma around prisoners and ex-prisoners
What does stigmatisation look like?
The dangers of stigmatisation, and any type of discrimination, are that, since they are abstract constructs, they can be difficult to expose in many cases. When it comes to the stigmatisation of prison leavers, however, a clear example can be found in the criminal convictions question on job application forms. Even though many employers may see it as a valid concern to ensure the safety of their employees as well as the reputation of their company, the lack of clarification—the type of felony the ex-prisoner committed—only leads to further stigmatisation of the prisoner community.
Moreover, a campaign called ‘Ban the Box’ was originally raised in the United States of America to increase job opportunities for ex-prisoners. The campaign, which was also launched in the UK in 2013, aims to ensure a fair change of recruitment to prison leavers. To do so, the campaign argues that allowing employers to ask for criminal convictions not only affects those who are looking for a job but also the company’s chances of finding a suitable employee.
Many employers that have their offices in the United Kingdom have signed up to the Ban the Box campaign. Although many of them ask about criminal records before hiring a potential employee, there are some, as is the case of Society, that do not ask for it at any point during the process of recruitment.
Even though preventing companies from rejecting candidates on the basis of past convictions is an important step towards the elimination of stigmatisation around prisoners and ex-prisoners, it still does not ensure that no discrimination will occur in the work place. For instance, even though some companies may not ask about past convictions, employers may fire employees once they discover their past. In those cases, stigmatisation is not as apparent. This is because, without giving the honest reason, many managers may let employees off in the grounds of poor work performance or unsuitability for the job (See Sheppard and Ricciardelli’s “Employment after prison: Navigating conditions of precarity and stigma”). This is why Ban The Box asks for employers only to restrict job opportunities to prison leavers when their convictions come into conflict with the job–for example, one person might not be allowed to be hired to be in contact with children if their conviction was related to children. When their convictions are not related to the job opportunity, Ban the Box asks employers not to ask about the conviction in advance so people have the actual opportunity to go through the recruitment process without being stigmatised.
On the other hand, those employers who may be willing to hire ex-prisoners, may only be so when there are low rates of employment or because of wage subsidy programmes. In these situations, even though no blatant discrimination may be perceived, it can still take place once the previous conditions are no longer fulfilled. In fact, if employers only hire ex-prisoners when there is low unemployment or because of external facilities, it only serves to confirm “the stigma against hiring former prisoners” (Sheppard and Ricciardelli, 2020, 37). However, this is where Breakthrough comes in. Many employers have expressed that after working with the organisation and seeing how talented their associates are, their perceptions have changed and are now keen to hire more prison leavers.
A never-ending cycle of stigmatisation
As made apparent by the previous points, the initial discrimination of the prisoner community leads to them being continuously stigmatised once they are out of prison. If said discrimination reduces their chances of getting a job—or limits them to low wage job opportunities—, it is also indirectly forcing them to find other ways of make ends meet, which may be illegal.
Jazmon Allen, a black American woman, is an example of how being part of a stigmatised social group can lead to incarceration, despite previously not having criminal records. This is due to an Arkansan law that allows landlords to file criminal charges against tenants who may have not been able to pay rent on time. After being made redundant and, consequently, not being able to pay rent, Allen was sent to prison until her mother posted bail. Allen now has criminal records, which in case of her committing a minor crime, could send her to jail.
Allen’s case illustrates the ineffectiveness of the criminal records question in job application forms. If she were asked for her past, she would have to tick the criminal records’ box despite her only ‘crime’ being not affording rent. Thus, she could have difficulties in finding a job which, in turn, could lead her to not being able to afford rent once again. Thus, the stigmatisation of the prison community ensures that when someone becomes a prisoner, their whole life becomes conditioned by it.
In the UK, focus has been placed on how 50% of children in custody have also been in care. In turn, 60% of children in custody are there because of traumatic abuse in family backgrounds. Thus, just like Allen, many of those children might end up having criminal records for reasons that are not necessarily related to their actions.
This map goes on to show the complexities of the prison system even after the prison leaver is released.
What does Breakthrough do to fight stigmatisation?
In order to break the latter cycle caused by stigmatisation, organisations such as Breakthrough are vital. Firstly, Breakthrough’s main aim is to help prison leavers become the best employees they can be. As a consequence, their felony is not known by anyone in the organisation—except in those cases in which the prison leaver wants it to be known—until the end of the community programme. Still, in those cases only those with the highest responsibility get to know about it. In this way, the focus is not placed on the person who committed the crime but on helping them improve their skills.
Secondly, from the moment a company is put into contact with a potential employee, Breakthrough lets the former know that the latter has a prison background. In that way, there is no risk of the employer hiring the prison leaver without them knowing about the person’s past. What is more, it also prevents the former prisoner from being fired in the future for those reasons. Moreover, Breakthrough also makes a conscious effort to talk with the employer to make sure that no prison leaver will be made redundant for its background once it has already been hired.
Thirdly, in order to fight stigmatisation, Breakthrough is committed to help expand the general knowledge on the criminal system. To do so, the enterprise’s blog is constantly being updated to deal with real life issues and reach an audience as wide as possible.
What can employers do to help fight stigmatisation?
To begin with, working with organisations such as Breakthrough is already helping to fight stigmatisation around prison leavers and the prisoner community in general. Stereotypes such as the inherent danger of prison leavers can be easily dismantled by looking at how 90% of inclusive employers highlight the reliability of their employees. Moreover, 79% of people think that businesses that employ prison leavers are making a positive contribution to society. Consequently, by employing prison leavers as apprentices, managers are not only helping to dismantle the stereotypes that affect the former, but they are also improving their company’s reputation as an inclusive business.
Still, stigmatisation must be actively contested by employers. In other words, if a company is set to help fight the discrimination faced by prison leavers, it must ensure that, when hiring former prisoners, they are not excluded but, instead, made to feel part of the working environment. To do so, it would be highly beneficial for companies to facilitate training courses on topics such as racial justice and the criminal system, to their employees. In that way, not only does the human quality of the company improve, but the adjustment process that prison leavers have to go through after becoming apprentices is also bound to happen in a gentler way as knowing more about the criminal system might also help to dismantle people’s stereotypes on prison leavers.
