Michael Hugh Mirsky's Article Analysis

1280 Words3 Pages

Appelbaum’s article primarily focuses on the case of Michael Hugh Mirsky, who tells his personal story which highlights the struggle many men in America face. In 2012, Mr. Mirsky initially had lost his job working at Verizon which snowballed two years later into a conviction for resisting arrest. Due to the conviction, work is hard to find and this led to the threat of foreclosure of his home. Mr. Mirsky is unable to afford child support payments for his 8-year-old daughter. The search for a permanent position is near impossible, Mirsky says, “even your lower-paying fast-food jobs are now doing background check... How can I pay child support if I can’t get a job (Appelbaum, 2015)?” His case is not unique, according the records presented …show more content…

Without these men getting to work and becoming productive members of society, they are barred from this opportunity and the economy suffers (Appelbaum, 2015). Devah Pager, who conducted the famous study “Mark of a Criminal Recod,” which unveiled apparent discrimination against ex-offenders in the job market, weighed in on the issue: “Prior to the prison boom, when convictions were restricted to a smaller fraction of the population, it wasn’t great for their rehab potential but it wasn’t having a huge impact… Now such a large fraction of the population is affected that is has really significant implication, not just for those people, but for the labor market as a whole (Appelbaum, …show more content…

The use of criminal record databases by employers has greatly increased since the 1990s when the information first became relevant (Appelbaum, 2015). The biggest rise in background searches began after the terrorist attacks in New York City on September 11, 2001. Mr. Uggen, a criminologist at the University of Minnesota, states that there is a problem with criminal background checks considering most employers have no idea what they should be looking for. With every business owner having different concerns about potential applicants, “we haven’t really figured out what a disqualifying offense should be for particular activities (Appelbaum,

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