Finding employment in the stigma machine: Reflections from Canada’s penal voluntary sector

This article highlights the day-to-day work of practitioners in Canada's penal voluntary sector, who are sometimes tasked with helping people with criminal records find employment. Interviews reveal the various obstacles they witness and navigate alongside those they are trying to support in the community. These narratives expose the functioning of various forms of stigma that keep people with criminal records in a state of struggle and unable to find (or keep) meaningful employment. Findings are situated alongside discussions of the need to change laws and policies to underscore the urgent need for greater collective action to dismantle the stigma machine and push back against the collateral consequences of punishment. From the standpoint of penal voluntary sector actors, layered with experiences of people with criminal records and other research on criminal convictions and employability, we can better understand how stigma power manifests and broker this knowledge to inform more collective and targeted advocacy.