According to this report from R Street, any criminal record—even an arrest that never led to a conviction—can stand in the way of employment. While there are many efforts to alleviate some of the barriers to opportunity that come with a criminal record, many fall short because of psychological biases. This report finds that automatically sealing records for certain criminal offenses is the strongest, most pragmatic approach.

Pragmatically, different strategies (e.g. ban the box, certificates of rehabilitation) will need to be employed at different stages to truly reintegrate the formerly incarcerated back into society.