Resource Guide on Mass Incarceration

Session #2The High Costs of the Mass Incarceration Regime

The costs of mass incarceration areHUMAN & PERSONAL.

The costs are alsoFINANCIAL.

All of these costs are devastating.

Human & Personal Costs

Long mandatory sentences usually mean that persons going “home”…

•Often have no place to go.

•Don’t have much family support.

•Face huge obstacles to finding work and housing.

The stigma of a felony conviction hangs over the reentering individual like a cloud:

•Many cannot vote.

•Many cannot serve on a jury.

Human & Personal Costs

The stigma of a felony conviction also usually means…

•No public benefits such as food stamps or subsidized housing.

•No college loans.

Human & Personal Costs

Many cannot even get a job interview after checking the job-application box that asks, “Have you ever been convicted of a felony?”

Human & Personal Costs

• Time in jail reduces a prisoner’s earnings by an average 40%.

• It dramatically limits his or her future economic mobility.

Human & Personal Costs

• One of every 28 children has a parent behind bars.

• For African Americans, one of every 9 children has a parent behind bars.

Human & Personal Costs

The Children Suffer

• Having an incarcerated parent doubles a U.S. child’s chances of experiencing homelessness.

• It greatly increases the likelihood that these children will also have serious social and school problems.

Human & Personal Costs

The Children Suffer

On average, for men up to age 48, imprisonment eliminates…

•Over 50% of white men’s earnings.

•Over 44% of Black men’s earnings.

•Over 41% of Latino men’s earnings.

Human & Personal Costs

That’s bad enough…But those losses don’t even include earnings forfeited during incarceration. They reflect the sizeable gap between those who were incarcerated and those never incarcerated.

Human & Personal Costs

Families experience…

•Basic loss of a father/brother/son or mother/sister/daughter.

•Difficult challenges (of time, money, and travel) to stay in touch with a loved one in prison.

Human & Personal Costs

To Families

The return of a loved one from prison creates another heavy financial and emotional burden. Most lack any source of income and are often still paying off court costs and restitution charges.

Human & Personal Costs

To Families

Many families hide their pain and suffering over their circumstances. They feel shamed by having a felon, or a former felon, in the family.

Human & Personal Costs

To Families

• Churches often reinforce the shame without providing any practical assistance to the families.

• And churches often do nothing to help or support the man or woman reentering society after incarceration.

Human & Personal Costs

To Families

An overwhelming majority of the formerly incarcerated will return to urban neighborhoods already afflicted by high rates of…

* Unemployment * Vice * Misery

Human & Personal Costs

Within Society

Their presence usually…

•Strains already overburdened social service providers.

•Discourages job-creating investments in their communities.

Human & Personal Costs

Within Society

Entire communities, including a vast swath of the U.S. African American community, end up penalized and held back by the mass incarceration regime.

Human & Personal Costs

Within Society

For Black people, perhaps the most painful cost is from the scorn of a white majority that simply assumes that inner-city troubles result from poor character, weak family ties, and a faulty work ethic.

Human & Personal Costs

Within Society

High Human & Personal CostsHave you seen or experienced any of the personal, human costs of mass incarceration among people you know? Would you briefly share this with the group?

Break for Discussion and Q & A

In the United States at federal, state, and local levels the total annual financial cost to maintain our current incarceration rate of 1 in every 100 adults was nearly $80 BILLION/YEAR as of 2014.

Financial Costs

The mass incarceration system reportedly costs 1 of every 15 state general-fund dollars, or nearly 6.7% of states’ general funding.

Financial Costs

But state taxpayers actually pay, on average, 14% more for state prisons than official correctional department budgets indicate.*

* (Vera Institute of Justice, 2010 survey)

Financial Costs

From 19802008 (28 years):

•33% rise in U.S. overall population.

•350% rise in U.S. prison & jail population.

Financial Costs

Total 40-year cost to expand mass incarceration =

OVER 1 TRILLION DOLLARSfrom 19702010

($1,000,000,000,000)

Financial Costs

The U.S. incarcerates so many working-age people (2.2 million as of 2010) that this action distorts the nation’s employment and unemployment figures.

Financial CostsThe Economy Suffers

More than 60% of all incarcerated men and women are in their prime working years (ages 18-39). Their exclusion from employment figures results in an incomplete picture of U.S. workforce trends.

Financial CostsThe Economy Suffers

The biggest impact is on the employment-to-population ratio, which looks at workforce productivity. When prisoners are included in this calculation, the ratio changes significantly.

Financial CostsThe Economy Suffers

• For all working-age Black men, the employment-to-population ratio drops 6% (from 67% to 61%).

• For Black men ages 20-34, this ratio drops 8% (from 66% to 58%).

Financial CostsThe Economy Suffers

Jail has become so common for Black men that they are now more likely to be in jail than at work if they are young and don’t have a high-school diploma.

Financial CostsThe Economy Suffers

About 60% of formerly incarcerated people will remain unemployed.

60%!

Financial CostsThe Economy Suffers

Because a conviction record greatly lowers ex-offenders’ job prospects, the U.S. prison population reduces the total male employment rate by 1.5% to 1.7% in any given year.

Financial CostsThe Economy Suffers

These reductions in employment cost the U.S. economy between $57-65 billion in lost output every year.

Financial CostsThe Economy Suffers

The U.S. is the leading country in condemning people to sentences of life without parole (called LWOP). The condemned include even those who committed non-violent crimes.

Financial Costs

Housing LWOP prisoners costs U.S. taxpayers over $1.7 billion more than if LWOP were not a sentencing option.*

(*American Civil Liberties Union, 2014)

Financial Costs

• Prisons and jails are not just operated by federal, state, and local government any more.

• Private for-profit companies increasingly benefit from mass incarceration.

Financial Costs

Two examples:

•Corrections Corp. of America (CCA) netted $1.7 billion & paid its CEO $3.2 million in 2010.

•The Geo Group netted $1.2 billion & paid its CEO $3.4 million in 2010.

Financial Costs

These groups lobby aggressively.

•Corrections Corp. of America (CCA) spent more than $18 million on federal lobbying from 1999-2009.

•From 2000-2010, our nation’s three biggest for-profit prison companies spent more than $6 million in political contributions.

Financial Costs

The financial costs of mass incarceration are just as staggering in their own way as are the human, personal costs.

Financial Costs

High Costs, Personal & FinancialWhat did you feel after learning about the many costs of mass incarceration?

Final Discussion and Q & A

Resource Guide on Mass Incarceration

Session #2The High Costs of the Mass Incarceration Regime

Completed