percentage of americans that have done time in jail

“This survey really shows who the victims of mass incarceration are: the folks who have to manage households and grow up absent a loved one. “The core takeaway is family member incarceration is even more common than any of us-all of whom are experts in the field-had anticipated,” says Christopher Wildeman, study co-author and professor of policy analysis and management at Cornell. “Although a substantial body of work has examined how parental incarceration affects children,' the study authors write, “our understanding of the effects of having a family member other than a parent or romantic partner incarcerated is limited.'įor now, the new research highlights the sheer scope of mass imprisonment in the United States-a troubling phenomenon that impacts a broad spectrum of society, albeit not always evenly. The researchers hope to delve further into that data later on, and to look more closely at how people are affected by the incarceration of close family members. In other words, the researchers write, “Blacks with a college degree are just as likely to have a family member imprisoned as whites with less than a high school degree.”Īs part of the survey, participants were also asked a host of questions about their experiences with police and the criminal justice system, their health, civic and political engagement, and drug and alcohol use. Twenty-three percent of African Americans with a college degree, by contrast, had a relative spend at least a year in prison, compared to 46 percent of African Americans with less than a high school degree. For instance, only five percent of white people with a college degree had a family member who was incarcerated for more than a year, compared to 23 percent of white people who had not graduated high school. That risk declined as education level increased, but the results once again showed “the unequal risk of imprisonment” across racial groups, the study authors write. People without a high school degree had the highest cumulative risk-60 percent-of having an incarcerated family member. Since 1970, our incarcerated population has increased by 500 2 million people in jail and prison today, far outpacing population growth and crime. For Hispanics, the rate was 48 percent, and for whites it was 42 percent. The rate was particularly high among African Americans, 63 percent of whom have family members who have been in jail or prison. Nearly one in two Americans, the researchers found, have experienced the incarceration of a close relative. If they responded yes, they were asked to answer a more complete survey that covered such details as how many times the family member had been incarcerated, for how long and whether the participant had visited his or her relative in jail or prison. Surveys were conducted in English and Spanish.ĭuring an initial screener survey, participants were asked if a close family member-a parent (biological, adoptive or step), spouse, partner, co-parent, sibling or child-had ever spent time in jail or prison.

Field staff recruited some participants in person, which helped them contact groups that can be otherwise hard to reach, like young adults, people of lower socioeconomic status and people without internet access. Writing in the journal Socius: Sociological Research for a Dynamic World, the researchers say that “having a family member incarcerated is a ubiquitous experience in the United States,” one that reflects the reality of living in a country with unmatched incarceration rates.Īs Gizmodo’s George Dvorsky reports, the new study is considered “the most thorough of its kind to date.” The research is based on a nationally representative survey of 4,041 people. According to the Washington Post's Sari Horwitz, the typical cost of a federal prisoner is about $27,500 a year, but older inmates cost nearly $59,000 each year.When researchers at Cornell University set out to discover how many Americans have a close relative who has spent time in jail or prison, they were shocked to find that the rate clocked in at nearly 45 percent-around double what the team was expecting.

Not only has the imprisonment of the elderly driven up the incarceration rate, but it's actually made prison much more expensive - because elderly people tend to require more health care. These trends have resulted in prison overcrowding and. Many p eople were handed down long prison sentences during their 20s and 30s, so they're now forced to remain in prison through their elderly years.īut how likely, really, is it that a 65-year-old would rob a bank and kill someone? The research suggests not very: People tend to age out of crime, particularly after their 20s and 30s, so letting them out of prison 10 or 20 years down the line - instead of 40 years, 50 years, or never - likely wouldn't pose a threat to public safety. Changes in sentencing law and policy, not changes in crime rates, explain most of this increase. One way to see that mass incarceration has long reached the point of diminishing returns is by looking at the number of elderly people behind bars.

Percentage of americans that have done time in jail