Pandora’s box
Allowing ex-cons to hide their criminal histories increases racial inequality
WITH budgets under strain, governments across the developed world want to reduce their jail populations. For the first time in decades, America and Europe are now releasing more prisoners than they are locking up. One way to ensure those ex-cons do not wind up back behind bars is to help them find work. But a body of new research suggests one increasingly popular way to promote this has worrying unintended consequences.
This article appeared in the Finance & economics section of the print edition under the headline “Pandora’s box”
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