(Abstract Only)

The more than 600,000 inmates released from state and federal prisons each year face extremely bleak employment prospects. One industry which aims to make use of this ultra-"flexibilized" and demonized labor supply is the nation's multi-billion dollar day labor industry. This presentation entails a preliminary analysis of both the specific mechanisms wherein ex-offenders are channeled into day labor agencies by parole officers and social service agents as well as day labor companies' active participation in city and state-based prisoner reentry programs. Drawing upon ethnographic fieldwork at a leading day labor company, I examine the company's use of a "work as redemption" moral frame for purposes of labor force recruitment and disciplining. Offering an "honest day's pay for an honest day's work," day labor companies claim to fuel both individual and business growth in a "win-win situation." On the contrary, the low-wage, unstable, contingent work available through day labor agencies traps workers in a cycle of poverty, insecurity and structural unemployment that dramatically increases their chances of recidivism.