> Even if the excons are model, PERFECT employees, the conviction could prevent them from getting a job. I appreciate the author making such clear and well-stat

> Even if the excons are model, PERFECT employees, the conviction could prevent them from getting a job. I appreciate the author making such clear and well-stated points, that makes it easy to use to simple facts to refute his/her argument. It's pretty clear in context that this isn't actually what they're talking about at all. Caplan is responding to Quiggin's claim that mass incarceration has a measurable effect of targeting people who would otherwise have been unemployed if they had never been arrested and incarcerated in the first place. He's not literally arguing that releasing those people from prison overnight would result in them getting a job.