Unlocking Potential

Jefrey Abramowitz spent 20 years as an attorney in Philadelphia, working his way up to senior partner at a law firm in the heart of the city. Then, a series of bad decisions led to him losing everything—his career, his marriage, his sense of self.

Abramowitz was sentenced to five years in federal prison for embezzlement in 2012. He was released in 2015.

“I did my time and learned so much about myself, but also about marginalized populations and the struggles that people go through that I had not seen before,” Abramowitz says. Upon re-entering society with $28 to his name, he lived in a halfway house and got a job teaching GED classes. He eventually found his way into jobs at workforce development and adult literacy organizations. He wanted to help people like the men he had met in prison successfully reintegrate into society.

“There’s more skills training going on behind prison walls, preparing people for their lives after incarceration, but one of the biggest barriers for people with criminal records is finding a job,” Abramowitz says. Today, he leads the Petey Greene Program, a national nonprofit based in Princeton, N.J., that offers educational tutoring inside and outside of prisons to help people find a better job after being released.

More than 650,000 people are released from prison every year, each wanting a new start. But people with criminal records—especially those formerly incarcerated—face enormous barriers to employment. Often eager to work, this untapped pool of workers can bring great value to employers and communities when given the opportunity. But too often, biases and misperceptions about re-entry candidates cause HR teams to miss out on valuable talent, Abramowitz says.

Getting Back to Work

“One out of three people [in the U.S.] have prior justice involvement, and bias against their past history has led to increased rates of unemployment and chronic underemployment,” says Wendi Safstrom, president of the SHRM Foundation, the nonprofit arm of SHRM that empowers HR to lead positive social change. The Foundation has developed a number of resources for employers interested in offering opportunities to people previously in the criminal justice system. The Foundation’s free Getting Talent Back to Work Certificate trains HR professionals, hiring managers, front-line supervisors, and others on how to effectively attract, hire, and retain people with criminal histories.

Initiatives such as these can increase the labor pool and fight chronic unemployment among the previously incarcerated. Nearly 80 million Americans have a criminal record, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS). One BJS study found that only 40% of people released from prison in 2010 had found employment at any given time in the four years after they were released. The White House reported in 2022 that nearly 75% of people who are formerly incarcerated are still unemployed a year after being released.

Having a job is the single most important factor in decreasing recidivism. Although rates of recidivism range from about 31% to 71% in different states, the rates for formerly incarcerated people who found employment shortly after their release are less than 9%. “It is demonstrated that stable employment reduces recidivism, which is an obvious societal benefit,” Safstrom affirms.

The JPMorgan Chase Story

In 2017, Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase & Company, toured a training program for mechanics at the North Lawndale Employment Network in Chicago, an organization that helps local residents—especially those who have been incarcerated—find employment. He was struck by how the whole community was affected when the program’s participants found good jobs.

“These men’s experiences made me think about the seemingly insurmountable obstacles they and millions of others with criminal backgrounds face when looking for employment,” Dimon wrote in a 2021 op-ed for The New York Times. “We need more training programs like this and support for them by local employers. Jobs bring dignity.

The headline on Dimon’s editorial says it simply and best: “If You Paid Your Debt to Society, You Should Be Allowed to Work.” And with about as many U.S. residents having criminal records as college diplomas, it’s become a critical imperative.

The good news is that a growing number of companies—driven by social justice reform and awareness that many people from nontraditional backgrounds are looking for work—are joining the movement to help people with criminal histories find employment and re-enter the workforce. SHRM and the SHRM Foundation are founding partners of the Second Chance Business Coalition (SCBC), a growing assembly of over 50 large, private-sector employers committed to the second-chance hiring and career advancement of individuals with criminal histories. Founded in 2021, the SCBC is spearheaded by JPMorgan Chase and manufacturer Eaton Corporation and includes major employers, including American Airlines, GM, McDonald’s, PepsiCo, Union Pacific, Verizon, and Walmart.

JPMorgan Chase has been more than a titular leader in the SCBC, implementing inclusive recruiting and hiring practices and working with community partners to hire thousands of second-chance employees each year since 2018. About 10% of U.S. hires at the company—more than 4,600 people in 2022 and 3,300 in 2023—have criminal records.

Removing Barriers

JPMorgan Chase recognizes that, for many people with criminal histories, a big roadblock to re-entering the workforce occurs at the application stage. In numerous states, job seekers are asked to disclose their criminal history, which has the effect of disqualifying them from jobs.

So in 2018, the company chose to “ban the box”—remove any questions asking about criminal history from its applications. Instead, JPMorgan Chase conducts individualized assessments of candidates after a conditional offer of employment has been made. “Our hiring managers do not know at any time in the recruiting process about someone’s criminal background,” says Michelle Kuranty, executive director of New Joiner Experience at JPMorgan Chase.

Kuranty explains that a candidate’s individual assessment accounts for specific circumstances and considers the job relatedness of a conviction, the time passed since that conviction, and rehabilitation. Candidates must also meet regulatory requirements to specifically work in financial institutions.

“We want to make sure that the people we hire do not pose a safety or security risk to the industry or the company, so that’s something we pay close attention to,” Kuranty says. “The assessment is done by a specialized screening group, and hiring decisions are strictly based on skills and qualifications.”

Kuranty adds that JPMorgan Chase also works to remove barriers at the top of the hiring funnel, including educating nonprofit partners in the community to better prepare candidates for employment opportunities at the company. “We found that some of our workforce partners were tending to not send candidates to us or other financial services employers because they didn’t know if regulations would allow it,” she says.

‘Just Try It’

While social stigma and employers’ general risk aversion to hiring formerly incarcerated people are obstacles these job seekers face, there are also more fundamental hurdles.

“People coming out of incarceration often don’t have identification, transportation, a bank account, a cellphone, or access to a computer,” Abramowitz says. “And for just about every job today, there is a requirement to file an application online. Their digital literacy may be poor, and they may not have ever been trained on how to put together a resume.”

Applicants have to surmount these basic challenges to get and keep a job. Employers can partner with organizations that help people make the transition from prison to the workforce by teaching them job-seeking skills.

“Partners could include re-entry organizations that are doing this work from the second someone walks out of the prison doors, jobs centers found across the country, and training partners,” Abramowitz says. For employers who may be hesitant to reach out to this overlooked population, he advises that they “just try it.”

“Start with one or two employees who are qualified, bring them on, and learn from the experience,” he suggests. “Being successful means matching second-chance candidates to good jobs that fit. If you can get someone in a job doing something they enjoy, they will stick to it.”   

Roy Maurer is a senior specialist, B2C Content, at SHRM.