Are Construction Companies Exploiting Vulnerable Post-Prison Employees?
Michael Negron, 36, just released from prison and looking for work, couldn’t believe his good luck.
He had been rejected countless times from jobs because of his criminal record and knew if he didn’t find something soon, he could be sent back to prison, this time for violating the work requirement of his community supervision.
But one day in February 2017, when Negron stepped out of the US Federal Court in Brooklyn after meeting with his probation officer, he was greeted by a man who promised him a job in construction the very next day.
Negron thought his problems were solved. Then he got to work. “I went to work the next day and it was hard labor,” Negron said. “I needed work, so this job was like a gift and a curse.”
Over the next two years, his employer, SLG Construction, asked him to do back-breaking and dangerous labor for $15 an hour, about 70% less than what a union construction job would pay. Furthermore, according to Negron, they did not give him proper training for some of the more dangerous tasks he was assigned.
Ronald Day, Vice President of programs at Fortune Society, an organization that helps formerly incarcerated people find work, said he has heard many stories of exploitation at work places, but this was the first time he has heard of someone actively seeking people on post-release supervision.
“You know when someone walks up to you on the street and says I have a job — that is sketchy,” said Day. “We try and connect formerly incarcerated people with jobs where they aren’t exploited but sometimes they try and get jobs on their own.”
SLG Construction did not reply to questions about their hiring practices.
At SLG Construction, Negron’s day began at 4 am. He operated hoists outside elevators, used tools like grinders, reciprocating saws, and chipping guns which he said he was not trained to use and were dangerous if not handled with extreme caution. He described hauling garbage containers that weighed more than 200 pounds. They were filled with cement, sheet rock, bricks, drywall, metal and other demolition wastes. Negron said his feet and arms would feel numb after a full day of hard labor work.
Finding a job is an important goal for many incarcerated people returning home. Most companies do not want to hire people with criminal records, and incarcerated people often do not have the skills they need to get a job. When formerly incarcerated people re-enter the workforce post-release, they may be underpaid, made to work overtime, or be exposed to harsh working conditions. Moreover, post-release supervision requirements often dictate that people on supervision maintain employment, which makes parolees an easy target for companies seeking cheap labor.
Without a job, money, and a place to live, formerly incarcerated people are vulnerable and find themselves facing the same issues that landed them in prison in the first place, such as lack of employment opportunities.
“Often people on parole are desperate for work because they can lose their liberty if not employed and they don’t often have any public or family resources to fall back on,” said Vincent Schiraldi, co-director of the Columbia Justice Lab and former Commissioner of New York City Probation. “In that respect, ending mass incarceration and the stigmatization of people with criminal convictions should be a labor issue.”
According to the study “Less is More in New York: An Examination of the Impact of State Parole Violations on Prison and Jail Populations” published by Columbia University’s Justice Lab, people on parole supervision are more likely to be back in prison not for new convictions but for violating the requirements of their parole. In 2012, 83.7% of the 9,372 people released from New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision (DOCCS) facilities were reincarcerated for violating the conditions of their parole.
A 20-year veteran with the New York State Division of Parole who did not want to be named explained that as hard as officers might try, it can be very difficult for them to find jobs for parolees.
“A lot of these guys have next to no skills, they have next to no resume to speak of,” he said. “There’s a stigma against parolees, so it’s very difficult for us to find them jobs.”
Knowing this, business owners can use parolee vulnerability to their advantage, which is what Negron described.
Negron worked at SLG Construction for almost two years to meet his parole work requirement. “You think you are winning,” he said. “You are doing so much labor because you will be getting parole off your back but, at the end of the day, you are exhausted, dead.”
He worked six days a week, sometimes seven, until January 2019, when a supervisor on a nearby site, having seen Negron’s work ethic, was so impressed that he found him a different job, not with SLG Construction. At his new job, Negron is happy with the pay and benefits and is earning three times more per hour.
Recalling his days with SLG Construction, Negron said that after he got home from work, “I would not want to get in the shower, just get in my bed and curl up.”
