Not B.S. My nephew was caught up in drugs and got busted, as he should have been. When he got out, the only job he could get was in salvage and demolition. He was the only person on his crew who spoke English, but he was treated and paid as poorly as the illegals, never knowing from one day to the next if his job would go to an illegal paid less than minimum wage, as it eventually did.
I doubt that and think you are spreding more hysterical hyperbole, there are many halfway houses that would have set him up in a job. That's of course if he can keep it, which is the part of the story you left out.