The Temp Trap

Overview

The Temp Trap exposes how the U.S. economy relies on a hidden workforce of people with criminal records, where workers who are not only excluded from parts of the labor market, but deliberately funneled into its most dangerous and unstable jobs. Challenging the dominant narrative of “reentry,” the report reveals how the carceral system and the temp industry work together to lock millions of people into cycles of low wages, surveillance, and disposability.

Drawing on organizing, policy analysis, and lived experience, The Temp Trap moves from diagnosis to strategy, offering a clear roadmap to raise standards in the temp industry and expand access to quality jobs. It is a call to decarceral and labor organizers alike: without transforming the conditions of work, there is no path to ending incarceration, and without organizing workers with records, we cede the ground on which the future of work will be built.

‍‍This report draws on two years of community-based research conducted by Beyond the Bars, supplemented by federal employment data and academic literature. From 2023 to 2025, we surveyed 183 people in Miami-Dade County jails, knocked on 1,443 doors, visited 89 temp agencies and 58 reentry and workforce organizations across South Florida, and conducted 608 in-depth conversations with community members impacted by incarceration. Full methodology is detailed in the Methods section of the Appendix.

Acknowledgements:

Authored by Maya Ragsdale and Katherine Passley.

With research and drafting support from Chris Schwartz of Blue Pencil Strategies.

Special thanks to our organizing team and members for field research; to Donna Coker and her class at University of Miami School of Law, Building Worker and Community Power to Confront the Carceral State; and to Jon Hanson and his class at Harvard Law School, Systemic Justice Lawyering.

Photography by Jess Palés of Cuentos Film and Beyond the Bars staff. Faces blurred to protect participants’ privacy.

Copyediting by Emily Gordon.

Design by KT Estep.

With contributions and/or feedback from:

• Jake Barnes, Rutgers School of Management and Labor Relations
• Eric Brakken, EJB Strategies
• Bernard Callegari, Laborers’ International Union of North America, Eastern Region
• Emma Cohn, Economic Policy Institute
• Sarah Couture, Fines and Fees Justice Center
• Sally Dworak-Fisher, National Employment - Law Project
• Andrew Elmore, Boston University School of Law
• George Gonos, State University of New York at Potsdam (Emeritus)
• Jennifer Hill, Advocacy Partners Team
• Cicely Hodges, Florida Policy Institute
• Stephen Lerner, Action Center on Race and the Economy/Bargaining for the Common Good
• Erin Lichtenstein, University of Michigan Law School
• Oscar Londoño, WeCount!
• Han Lu, National Employment - Law Project
• Sheila Maddali, Grassroots Law & Organizing for Workers
• Charlotte Noss, National Employment Law Project
• Kathryn Nowotny, University of Miami
• Jasson Perez, Just Impact Advisors
• Jenny Pigge, Harvard Law School
• David Piña, ROOT Legal
• Maya Pinto, National Employment - Law Project
• Adam Saper, Community Justice Project
• Alexis Tsoukalas, Florida Policy Institute 
• Noah Zatz, UCLA School of Law

Cite as:

Maya Ragsdale and Katherine Passley, “The Temp Trap: A Blueprint for Organizing Workers with Records in the Temp Industry,” Beyond the Bars, November 18, 2025, https://www.beyondthebars.org/publications/The-Temp-Trap.