“Incarceration reduces former inmates earnings by 40 percent and limits their future economic mobility, according to a new Pew report, Collateral Costs: Incarcerations Effect on Economic Mobility. This is a growing challenge now that 1 in every 28 children in America has a parent behind bars, up from 1 in 125 just 25 years ago.”
“Over the past 30 years, the United States has experienced explosive growth in its incarcerated population. The Pew Center on the States reported in 2008 that more than 1 in 100 adults is now behind bars in America, by far the highest rate of any nation. The direct cost of this imprisonment boom, in dollars, has been staggering: state correctional costs quadrupled over the past two decades and now top $50 billion a year, consuming 1 in every 15 general fund dollars.2 Looking at the same period of time, Pews Economic Mobility Projects research has revealed a decidedly mixed picture of economic mobility in America. On the one hand, two-thirds of families have higher inflation-adjusted incomes than their parents did at a similar age. Given these favorable odds for each generation to earn a better living than the last, it is no wonder that, even in the depths of the countrys economic slump last year, 8 out of 10 Americans believed it was still possible to get ahead. Less encouraging, however, are the findings that describe how individuals economic rank compares to their parents rank at the same age, as well as data showing that race and parental income significantly impact economic mobility. For example, 42 percent of Americans whose parents were in the bottom fifth of the income ladder remain there themselves as adults…We ask two questions: To what extent does incarceration create lasting barriers to economic progress for formerly incarcerated people, their families and their children? What do these barriers mean for the American Dream, given the explosive growth of the prison population?”
Sorry, comments are closed for this post.