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After Prison, Opportunities Are Hard to Come By. Enter Entrepreneurship.

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BlueSky Thinking Summary

In one recent study, Kylie Hwang reveals that entrepreneurship is one basic yet little-trodden route for previously incarcerated people in the U.S., driven as it is by pervasive labor-market discrimination.

According to Hwang's findings, those who have experienced arrest and imprisonment are 40% more likely to become entrepreneurs than their non-incarcerated peers.

This shift results from their limited job opportunities, especially for Black individuals who face significant biases.

Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth and the local "ban-the-box" policies, Hwang and Damon Phillips demonstrated that entrepreneurship has financial rewards and lower recidivism rates but often is a necessity rather than a choice.

Their findings suggested that improving labor market opportunities through policy and venture support might be easier and more possible for integrating the formerly incarcerated workforce.

Rates of incarceration are so high, so these barriers remain paramount.

How are we to support such people more, offer them more efficient reintegration?