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Title: Collateral Costs: Incarcerations's Effect on Economic Mobility

Citation Type: Miscellaneous

Publication Year: 2010

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Abstract: Currently 2.3 million Americans are behind bars, equaling more than 1 in 100 adults. Up from just 500,000 in 1980, this marks more than a 300 percent increase in the United States’ incarcerated population and represents the highest rate of incarceration in the world. Over the last four years, The Pew Charitable Trusts has documented the enormous expense of building prisons and housing inmates that is borne by states and the federal government. Indeed, in the face of gaping budget shortfalls, more than half of the states are now seeking alternative sentencing and corrections strategies that cost less than prison, but can protect public safety and hold offenders accountable. A less explored fiscal implication of incarceration is its impact on former inmates’ economic opportunity and mobility. Economic mobility, the ability of individuals and families to move up the income ladder over their lifetime and across generations, is the epitome of the American Dream. Americans believe that economic success is determined by individual efforts and attributes, like hard work and ambition, and that anyone should be able to improve his or her economic circumstances.

Url: https://csgjusticecenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/2010-Pew.pdf

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Authors: Western, Bruce; Pettit, Becky

Publisher: The Pew Charitable Trusts

Data Collections: IPUMS USA

Topics: Crime and Deviance, Labor Force and Occupational Structure

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