Project

Fair Chance to Advance

Building Fair Chance Ecosystems at the State Level

January 14, 2026

At a Glance

A national initiative led by JFF’s Center for Justice & Economic Advancement to transform state systems so people with histories of incarceration can access education and careers and achieve economic mobility.

Contributors

Jenna Dreier Director

Rebecca Villarreal Senior Director

Michael Fischer Senior Manager

Joel Negron Manager

Lauren Miller Senior Manager

Stacy Holliday Director

Jennifer Sanders Director

Practices & Centers

Center for Justice & Economic Advancement

What Is Fair Chance to Advance?

Two workers in high-visibility jackets and safety glasses operate computers and testing equipment at a workstation.

Fair Chance to Advance (FC2A) is a multiyear initiative led by the Center for Justice & Economic Advancement at Jobs for the Future (JFF). Its mission is to align and transform state systems so that policymakers, educators, employers, and workforce leaders can take a coordinated approach to expanding pathways from incarceration to quality jobs by eliminating barriers to economic advancement for people with histories of incarceration.

Why This Work Matters

Today, the systems that provide supports, services, and education and employment opportunities to people who are incarcerated or returning to their communities following incarceration often operate in silos. As a result, people with histories of incarceration rarely have a fair chance to advance: They must navigate fragmented pathways with limited opportunities. Activities undertaken as part of the FC2A initiative will help states replace fragmentation with collaboration, enabling them to scale high-quality education, training, and fair chance employment opportunities statewide.

Driving Change

Across the nation, people with histories of incarceration face barriers to education and employment. Fair Chance to Advance helps states eliminate barriers by aligning systems and building stronger pathways to economic success.

The Need for Change

As the statistics in the graphic below illustrate, people with records of incarceration—who are disproportionately Black—face economic challenges that not only affect their day-to-day lives but also impact their ability to build generational wealth.

Economic Exclusion

Over 27% of formerly incarcerated people are unemployed.
64% of people with records report that they do not have quality jobs.
It’s estimated that, collectively, people who have been incarcerated earn just 48% of what they could potentially earn per year, costing the U.S. economy $55.2 billion annually.

Racial Disparity

Black Americans are incarcerated in state prisons at nearly 5 times the rate of white Americans.
In 12 states, over half of the prison population is Black.
People of color and women face the worst “penalties” in the job market after serving time in prison, making longstanding inequalities in the labor force even worse. Black women are hardest hit by the “prison penalty,” experiencing 44% unemployment.
A large share of the U.S. racial wealth gap can be attributed to the disproportionate share of Black and Latine households with an incarcerated family member.

Generational Impact

People with records are disproportionately stuck in the bottom income quintile—with only a 2% chance of reaching the top.
Households with a family member who is currently or was formerly incarcerated have roughly 50% less wealth, are less likely to have emergency or retirement savings, and carry more costly and risky debt than households without a family member who is or was incarcerated.
The extreme difficulty of economic mobility has enormous consequences on families and communities, as formerly incarcerated parents struggle to make ends meet, let alone build intergenerational wealth.

Growing Momentum

Pell Grant Restoration
Access to federal Pell Grants has been restored for learners who are incarcerated, sparking an evolution in talent development opportunities in correctional settings. The change was signed into law by President Trump in 2020 and took effect on July 1, 2023.
Building an Ecosystem
Cross-sector collaborations are accelerating in response to Pell Grant reinstatement. Postsecondary institutions and corrections systems are partnering more intentionally with workforce boards, community-based organizations, and other stakeholders to build education-to-employment pathways that start in prison and lead to economic opportunity after release.
Focusing On Reentry
States are taking the lead in improving reentry outcomes. Bipartisan commitment to improving post-incarceration pathways is evident in recent executive orders from governors across the political spectrum and in state participation in initiatives such as Reentry 2030.
Expanding Fair Chance Hiring
Increasing numbers of employers and industries are embracing fair-chance hiring practices in response to talent shortages and the compelling business and human cases for hiring the best person for the job, regardless of background.

How JFF Drives Change

Right now, many of the systems that shape opportunity—education, workforce development, corrections, and reentry programs—operate separately. As a result of this lack of alignment, people with histories of incarceration often face broken or incomplete pathways to education and employment.

While individual programs have created new opportunities, existing programs cannot meet the scale of the need. And while our state systems share the goal of creating more opportunity, without coordination and sustained funding, many people will continue to be left without clear pathways to stable jobs and long-term economic success.

Fair Chance to Advance was created to address this challenge. It helps states align systems, funding, and leadership so that pathways to opportunity are clear, coordinated, and accessible to all.

Black outline icon of a brain with a light bulb in the center, enclosed in a blue circle on a white background.

Expand access to high-quality education and training during incarceration

Icon of two people in suits with a globe between them, representing global business or international collaboration, enclosed in a blue circle.

Connect education pathways to real job opportunities after release

Simple black outline of an eye with lines radiating outward, enclosed in a teal circle on a white background.

Support employers in adopting fair chance hiring practices

Simple line drawing of a person walking up a staircase, enclosed in a blue circle on a white background.

Remove policy barriers and normalize opportunity for people with records

Black outlined magnifying glass with a line graph inside, surrounded by a blue circle on a light gray background.

Use shared data to make better decisions and track progress over time

The Result

Clearer pathways, stronger workforce participation, and better economic outcomes for people, businesses, and communities.

Who’s Involved

Through a yearlong design process, JFF worked with more than 100 partners nationwide to understand what it will take to build strong fair chance ecosystems at the state level.

Through this work, we identified eight stakeholder groups that are essential to expanding statewide access to education, training, and quality jobs.

By aligning the efforts of the eight core partners listed here, states can move from disconnected programs to coordinated systems working to ensure that people with histories of incarceration have a fair chance at economic advancement.

Core Stakeholders

Departments of corrections and community supervision
Postsecondary education and workforce training providers and system offices
Workforce development agencies and workforce boards
State leaders and policymakers

Systems-impacted leaders, including people with live experience of incarceration
Employers, industry organizations, and unions
Community and advocacy organizations
Providers of reentry, legal, and social benefit services

How Fair Chance to Advance Works

Learn more

Join the FC2A National Network

Sources

Sources for Information in "The Need for Change"

Lucius Couloute and Daniel Kopf, “Out of Prison & Out of Work: Unemployment Among Formerly Incarcerated People,” Prison Policy Initiative, July 10, 2018, https://www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/outofwork.html.
Jobs for the Future, The American Job Quality Study: 2025 State of the U.S. Labor Force , 2025, https://www.jff.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/AmericanJobQualityReport_Final_10142025.pdf.
Ariel Nelson, Broken Records Redux: How Errors by Criminal Background Check Companies Continue to Harm Consumers Seeking Jobs and Housing (Boston, Massachusetts: National Consumer Law Center, December 2019), https://www.nclc.org/resources/report-broken-records-redux/.
Terry-Ann Craigie, Ames Grawert, and Cameron Kimble, Conviction, Imprisonment, and Lost Earnings: How Involvement With the Criminal Justice System Deepens Inequality (New York, New York: Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law, September 15, 2020), https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/conviction-imprisonment-and-lost-earnings-how-involvement-criminal.
Ashley Nellis, The Color of Justice: Racial and Ethnic Disparity in State Prisons (Washington, DC: The Sentencing Project, October 13, 2021), https://www.sentencingproject.org/reports/the-color-of-justice-racial-and-ethnic-disparity-in-state-prisons-the-sentencing-project/.
Christian E. Weller, Akua Amaning, and Rebecca Vallas, “America’s Broken Criminal Legal System Contributes to Wealth Inequality,” Center for American Progress, December 13, 2022, https://www.americanprogress.org/article/americas-broken-criminal-legal-system-contributes-to-wealth-inequality.
Economic Mobility Project and the Public Safety Performance Project of The Pew Charitable Trusts, Collateral Costs: Incarceration’s Effect on Economic Mobility, The Pew Charitable Trusts, 2010, https://www.pew.org/-/media/legacy/uploadedfiles/pcs_assets/2010/collateralcosts1pdf.pdf.
Keith Finlay, Michael Mueller-Smith, and Brittany Street, “Children’s Indirect Exposure to the U.S. Justice System: Evidence From Longitudinal Links Between Survey and Administrative Data,” The Quarterly Journal of Economics 138, no. 4 (June 2, 2023): 2181–2224, https://doi.org/10.1093/qje/qjad021.