Employment of Justice-Impacted Youth with Disabilities

What if you or a loved one were recently released from prison  and looking for a job? In New York state, young adults with disabilities in this situation often receive less support from state-provided employment services than their non-disabled peers. However, securing a job is a strong predictor of successful community readjustment and enhanced quality of life, and it lowers the likelihood of returning to prison.

Research conducted by the Yang-Tan Institute on Employment and Disability has resulted in six recommendations to New York state for improving employment outcomes for justice-impacted young adults with disabilities. These recommendations are explained in a new policy brief and will be discussed in a free webinar, “Improving Vocational Services for Justice-Involved Youth with Disabilities in New York State,” from 1 to 3 p.m. on Nov. 13.

The policy brief, which is called “Job Training for Justice-Impacted New Yorkers with Disabilities: Interagency Coordination between Corrections and Vocational Rehabilitation,” focuses on coordination between agencies, so that justice-impacted young adults with disabilities benefit from employment-related services. Although justice-impacted can have somewhat different meanings, here it means people who were previously in prison, jail or youth detention due to a criminal case, or under community supervision, such as on probation or in diversion programming.

Although people with disabilities make up 11% of the adult working age population, people with disabilities make up 66% of those incarcerated in federal and state prisons.

Recommendations Call for Improved Systemic Coordination

Justice-impacted people with disabilities access state-provided, employment-related services at significantly lower rates than their non-justice-involved peers, and even among those who do access services, their outcomes are lower than their non-justice-involved peers.

The brief calls for improving the situation with systemic change. It focuses on areas where change could be most impactful. It also draws attention to policies in other states that could be used as a model.

“Because a consistent path through vocational rehabilitation services for justice-involved individuals is so important, we did research to understand service gaps and challenges related to interagency coordination in New York state.”
—Matt Saleh, senior research associate at the Yang-Tan Institute

The brief provides research-based recommendations aimed at making it simpler for more young adults with disabilities in a carceral setting – such as jail or prison – to more often receive suitable vocational rehabilitation services from appropriate staff. It also suggests how to facilitate smoother transitions for them as they move between systems, such as probation, corrections and parole, as well as education, welfare, vocational rehabilitation, mental health and more. Because these systems have different core missions—some aim to improve public safety while others focus on education or employment—young adults can experience service gaps and issues with eligibility and referral.

The brief also points out the importance of disability-related assessments and services for a person who is incarcerated, leading to a smooth transition into disability-related services available on release, such as vocational rehabilitation, noting that “research strongly supports the conclusion that rapid engagement with education and job training is cost-beneficial for both justice-involved individuals and for government programs.”

About the Authors

The first author of the brief is Matt Saleh, senior research associate at the Yang-Tan Institute and co-director of Cornell ILR’s Criminal Justice and Employment Initiative. Saleh studies issues surrounding disability and incarceration, as highlighted in an interview with him earlier this year, titled Matt Saleh Asks Questions, Spurs Input. Additional authors are Kirsten Law, former student research assistant at the institute; Jennifer Brooks, research associate at the institute; Leslie Shaw, research associate at the institute; and Andrew Karhan, project director at San Diego State University’s Interwork Institute.

The Recommendations

To improve employment outcomes for justice-impacted youth with disabilities, the researchers recommend that the state:

• Remove the “6 months from release” criteria and implement requirements for delivering vocational rehabilitation in carceral settings.
• Follow examples from other states requiring that vocational rehabilitation be exhausted for incarcerated individuals with disabilities before placement in corrections-operated vocational programs.
• Require formal interagency agreements that align referral, assessment, and service coordination policies and practices.
• Develop frameworks that provide procedures for submitting vocational rehabilitation applications and facilitate access to carceral settings for vocational rehabilitation counselors, and that ensure appropriate referral to vocational rehabilitation for individuals under community supervision.
• Issue a joint guidance document on braiding and sequencing vocational services for incarcerated individuals with disabilities.
• Follow regulatory examples from other states that remove inconsistent eligibility criteria and require appropriate referrals.

Read the brief for the full text of these recommendations.

About the Yang-Tan Institute

Providing practical information to educators, policymakers and others who assist people with disabilities is a core focus for the Yang-Tan Institute on Employment and Disability, which is part of Cornell’s ILR School. The institute’s mission is to advance knowledge, policies and practices that enhance equal opportunities for all people with disabilities. Its research, training and technical resources expand knowledge about disability inclusion, leading to positive change.

The institute leads many grant-funded projects, including Improving VR Outcomes for Out-of-School Youth Involved in the Justice and/or Foster Care Systems and New York state Subminimum Wage to Competitive Integrated Employment (SWTCIE). The institute also receives funding via a New York state legislative appropriation to assist with a variety of disability-related initiatives.