Shackled by Freedom: How Workplace Licensing Holds Back Ex-Convicts

“Sometimes industries ask for regulations and encourage it, sometimes it is a form of regulatory capture, sometimes it’s warranted and earnest,” said Shoshana Weissmann, Fellow at R Street Institute, a free-market public policy research nonprofit. “Other times, you’ll see an incident where someone does a poor job of something, and then politicians license it. Other times there’s just the vibe — it feels like we should license this. It’s rarely, if ever, based on evidence of harm or data.”