Rapid growth in the incarceration rate over the past two decades has made prison time a routine event in the life course of young, economically disadvantaged Black and Hispanic men. Although incarceration may now have significant effects on economic inequality, only a few studies have systematically examined the labor market experiences of ex-offenders. This article reviews the mechanisms that plausibly link incarceration to employment and earnings, and discusses the challenges of causal inference for a highly self-selected sample of criminal offenders. There is little consensus about the labor market effects of a variety of justice system sanctions, but there is consistent evidence for the negative effects of prison time on earnings, particularly among older or white-collar offenders. The article observes that research on the labor market experiences of ex-offenders must generate data that will help identify an incarceration effect, will describe the conditions of confinement, and will ensure that the labor market experiences of reentering inmates are completely observed. References