Every Second
The Impact of the Incarceration Crisis
on America’s Families

EverySecond.fwd.us

FWD.us is a bipartisan political organization
that believes America’s families,
communities, and economy thrive when
everyone has the opportunity to achieve their
full potential. For too long, our broken
immigration and criminal justice systems
have locked too many people out from
the American dream. Founded by leaders in
the technology and business communities,
we seek to grow and galvanize political
support to break through partisan gridlock
and achieve meaningful reforms.
Together, we can move America forward.

December 2018, Published by:
For further information, please visit fwd.us.

Acknowledgments
This report would not have been possible
without the hard work, advice, and
support of the full FWD.us team and many
advocates, directly impacted persons,
and academic advisors. In particular, we
would like to thank members of our
advisory board and all the researchers
who contributed to the development and
analysis of the survey. We must also
acknowledge the thousands of people who
responded anonymously to our survey, thus
sharing their experiences and stories with us.

REPORT WRITERS AND
KEY CONTRIBUTORS
Brian Elderbroom, Laura Bennett,
Shanna Gong, Felicity Rose,
Zoë Towns
CREATIVE AND DESIGN
Purpose
Chell Zeng
Cammie Croft

ADVISORY BOARD

RESEARCH TEAM

Frederick Hutson
CEO, Pigeonly

Principal Investigator:
Christopher Wildeman
Professor of Policy Analysis and
Management, Provost Fellow for
the Social Sciences, and Director
of Bronfenbrenner Center for
Translational Research, Cornell
University

Patrick McCarthy
President and CEO, Annie E.
Casey Foundation
Pat Nolan
Director, American Conservative
Union Foundation’s Center
for Criminal Justice Reform
Kevin Ring
President, FAMM
Cynthia Shank
Criminal Justice Reform Advocate,
Featured in HBO Documentary
The Sentence
Susan Sharp, David Ross
Boyd Professor and Presidential
Professor Emerita
Department of Sociology,
University of Oklahoma
LaTonya Tate
Justice Fellow, Open Society
Foundation
Rudy Valdez
Criminal Justice Reform Advocate
and Director, HBO Documentary
The Sentence
Deetra Wiley
Co-Founder of Serving Children
with Incarcerated Parents,
University of Mississippi
Greg Williams
Executive Vice President, Facing
Addiction with NCADD

Megan Comfort
Senior Research Sociologists
at Research Triangle Institute
Peter Enns
Associate Professor of
Government and Executive
Director of the Roper
Center for Public Opinion
Research, Cornell University
Alyssa Goldman
Ph.D. Candidate Department
of Sociology, Cornell University
Maria Fitzpatrick
Associate Professor of Policy
Analysis and Management
and Director of the Cornell
Institute for Public Affairs,
Cornell University
Hedwig Lee
Professor of Sociology,
Washington University in St. Louis
Christopher Muller
Assistant Professor of Sociology,
University of California Berkeley
Sara Wakefield
Associate Professor of Criminal
Justice, Rutgers University
Emily Wang
Associate Professor and Director
of the Health Justice Lab, Yale
School of Medicine
Youngmin Yi
Ph.D. Candidate, Departments of
Policy Analysis and Management
and Sociology, Cornell University

Table of Contents
08	Foreword
09	 Executive Summary
11	

Key Findings

20	Background
	

The Impact of Incarceration on Families 20

23	

Prevalence of Family Incarceration

	

Short and Long-Term Incarceration 25

	
	

Incarceration Does Not Affect All
Communities or Families Equally 27

	

Racial Disparities in Family Incarceration 28

	

Economic Disparities in Family Incarceration 29

	

Regional Disparities in Family Incarceration 30

33	

How Incarceration Harms Families

	

Financial Consequences of Incarceration 33

	

The Health Consequences of Incarceration 36

43	Conclusion
45	Methodology
48	References
51	Endnotes

the impact of incarceration on families in america

06

Every second
adult in America has
had an immediate
family member
incarcerated.
And every second
spent in jail or
prison is a second
lost at home.

Foreword
I love Christmas. I love to bake pies and decorate
a freshly cut fir tree and wrap presents while watching
It’s a Wonderful Life with my mom. I love, most of
all, just being with my family. I cling to the comfort
of my family being safe and together because I know
what it feels like not to have that.
	 The Christmas I was eight years old I woke up early,
like every year, too excited to sleep. But I wasn’t
focused on the presents in my stocking; the present
I wanted most of all that year was for my father to walk
through the door.
	 We had moved a few months before, 500 miles away
from my dad, but he had promised he would drive up
to celebrate the holidays with us. I was sure he would
come that morning. Perhaps he was going to surprise
me as he did when I was three, dressed as Santa
Claus, an enormous, laughing bear of a man — out on
bail while his federal charges were processed.
	 The phone rang; it was a collect call, the automated
coldness of which I had heard many times before.
I accepted the charges and heard my father’s voice.
He would not be coming, not that morning. On
Christmas Eve, as he loaded the car for his trip, he
had been arrested for a violation of his parole.

One of the worst parts of growing up with a father in
and out of prison was the isolation and shame I felt.
It was not for another decade that I even heard the
words “children of incarcerated parents”—a group
I was part of although I had never known it existed.
	 It turns out that this is an enormous group, as
outlined in this report. But the problem is not limited
to parents and children. When my father was
incarcerated, it cost my whole family, particularly my
mother, who was left to raise two small children
alone, and my grandparents, without whose financial
and emotional support I would not be where
I am today.
	 The research presented in this report provides our
first look at the full range of family incarceration, and
it is staggering. 1 out of every 2 adults in the United
States (113 million people) has lived through some
version of what I lived through: a parent known in
snatches of visits, a brother or sister missing, a child
locked away. 1 in 7 adults has had a close family
member spend more than one year in jail or prison—
over 35 million people.
	 These numbers are stunning, all the more so if you
think of them not as numbers but as stories like mine.
My hope is that this new research can help others
begin to see through that fog of isolation and shame
that hovers around too many families who have
experienced incarceration, to see their own stories as
part of a larger whole, important and worthy of telling.
Most importantly, I hope they motivate everyone—
those who have experienced it personally as well
as those who have not, yet—to take action and help
end mass incarceration and the harm it causes
American families.

Felicity Rose
Director of Research and Policy for Criminal Justice
Reform, FWD.us

the impact of incarceration on families in america

08

Executive Summary
On any given day, there are more than 1.5 million
people behind bars in state or federal prisons in the
United States. Admissions to local jails have
exceeded 10 million each year for at least the past
20 years. These figures are staggering, but the long
reach of incarceration extends well beyond the jail
and prison walls to the families on the other side.
	 New research from FWD.us and Cornell University
shows that approximately one in two adults
(approximately 113 million people) has had an
immediate family member incarcerated for at least one
night in jail or prison. One in seven adults has had an
immediate family member incarcerated for at least one
year, and one in 34 adults has had an immediate family
member spend 10 years or longer in prison. Today, an
estimated 6.5 million people have an immediate family
member currently incarcerated in jail or prison
(1 in 38).
	 The negative effects that individuals experience
after being incarcerated are well documented, but
much less is known about the incredible direct and
indirect harms and challenges that families face
when a loved one has been taken away. This report
examines this important but understudied aspect
of mass incarceration and provides new estimates
on the prevalence of family incarceration for parents,
siblings, spouses, and children.

113 million adults
— half of all adults
in America — have
experienced family
incarceration.

The findings reinforce the need to significantly reduce
incarceration and support the families that are left
behind. Despite limited recent declines in the jail and
prison population, an unprecedented number of
people continue to be impacted by incarceration and
the collateral consequences of that experience which
can last a lifetime. Research has shown that even
short periods of incarceration can be devastating to
people’s lives and additional punishments such
as fines and fees, restrictions on employment and
housing, and the loss of basic human rights limit
opportunities for success long after individuals have
completed their sentences.
	 Our study shows that incarceration impacts
people from all walks of life — for example, rates of
family incarceration are similar for Republicans
and Democrats — but the impact is unevenly borne
by communities of color and families who are
low-income. Black people are 50 percent more likely
than white people to have had a family member
incarcerated, and three times more likely to have had
a family member incarcerated for one year or longer.
People earning less than $25,000 per year are
61 percent more likely than people earning more than
$100,000 to have had a family member incarcerated,
and three times more likely to have had a family
member incarcerated for one year or longer.
	 The remainder of this report examines the
prevalence of family incarceration for different
demographic groups and communities, the impact
of incarceration on family outcomes, and the
policies that exacerbate the harmful effects of having
a loved one incarcerated. The findings show just
how pervasive and entrenched incarceration has
become in America, and the results should convince
decision-makers and the public to take a hard look
at the policies that drive incarceration and the
opportunities to strengthen families rather than tear
them apart.

the impact of incarceration on families in america

09

Findings

Nearly half of
all adults living
in the United
States have
experienced
incarceration
in their family.

the impact of incarceration on families in america | key findings

11

1 in 2

adults in the United States (approximately 113
million adults) has had an immediate family
member incarcerated for one or more nights in
jail or prison

64%

1 in 4

1 in 5

of adults in the United
States have had an immediate
or extended family member
in jail or prison

has had a sibling
incarcerated

has had a parent
incarcerated

Today, an estimated

1 in 7

1 in 8

6.5 million

has had a spouse
or co-parent
incarcerated

has had a child
incarcerated

adults have an immediate family
member currently incarcerated
in jail or prison (1 in 38)

the impact of incarceration on families in america | key findings

12

While short periods of
incarceration and long prison
sentences pose different
challenges for families, both
are far too common

1 in 5
people has had an immediate family
member spend one month or less in
jail or prison

(30 days or less)

the impact of incarceration on families in america | key findings

13

1 in 7
people has had an immediate family
member spend one year or longer
in prison

(365 days or more)

the impact of incarceration on families in america | key findings

14

1 in 34
people has had an immediate family
member spend ten years or longer
in prison

the impact of incarceration on families in america | key findings

15

Incarceration disproportionately
impacts people of color and
families who are low-income

Black adults are

Latino adults are

than white adults to have had an immediate
family member incarcerated

than white adults to have had an immediate
family member incarcerated for longer than one
year (17 percent compared to 10 percent)

50% more likely
(63 percent compared to 42 percent)

Black adults are

3 times more likely
than white adults to have had an immediate
family member incarcerated for longer than
one year (31 percent compared to 10 percent)

70% more likely

Adults with household incomes
less than $25,000 per year are

61% more likely

than adults with household incomes more than
$100,000 to have had a family member incarcerated,
and three times more likely to have had a family
member incarcerated for one year or longer

the impact of incarceration on families in america | key findings

16

Incarceration imposes a large
burden on women and children

48%
of women
have had an immediate family
member incarcerated

Compare to...

42%
of men
have had an immediate
family member incarcerated

Young adults age 18-29 are

2x
more likely
than other respondents to have had a parent
incarcerated (34 percent compared to 14 percent)

Background

Background
The long reach of incarceration in America is
staggering: there are more than 1.5 million people
in state and federal prisons on any given day1,
and nearly 11 million admissions to local jails each
year.2 Despite recent declines, our jail and prison
populations are four times larger than in 1980 and
the United States continues to incarcerate more
people than any other country in the world.3
	 Yet these numbers still minimize the harmful effects
of incarceration on our economy, communities,
and families. Taxpayers spend $273 billion each year
on the criminal justice system (police, courts,
and corrections)4 but relying on these direct taxpayer
costs still radically undersells the overall price of
this system. Researchers estimate that the economy
loses $87 billion in annual Gross Domestic Product
due to over-criminalization and the harmful effects of
felony convictions.5
	 The impact of incarceration is also unevenly felt by
low-income communities of color. Research shows
that one in three black men will be incarcerated during
their lifetime and people of color make up 37 percent
of the U.S. population but 67 percent of the prison
population.6 In 2014, the National Research Council
concluded that “the harshest criminal sanctions are
being meted out disproportionately in the most
vulnerable neighborhoods.”7
	 This same report found that lengthy prison
sentences are “ineffective as a crime control measure,”
refuting those who might argue that the cost of
mass incarceration can be justified on public safety
grounds.8 The reality is that incarceration provides
few crime benefits and limits opportunities for people
to be successful once they have been released.
	 Fortunately, there is an emerging bipartisan
consensus that the status quo fails to make us safer
and the fiscal and human costs of mass incarceration
far outweigh any public safety benefits. States across
the country are adopting common sense reforms to
reduce incarceration and the number of people behind
bars has fallen in recent years while the country enjoys
historically low crime rates.

At the same time, decades of rising jail and prison
populations have meant that an increasing number
of families have experienced incarceration and its
harmful effects. Even as jail and prison populations
begin to decline, there continue to be serious
consequences for those who have had a family
member incarcerated.
	 The first half of this report explores how many
families across America have been impacted by
incarceration, and how certain communities are
impacted more than others.

The Impact of Incarceration on Families
It should not be surprising that the families of those
who are incarcerated suffer when their loved ones are
locked up. However, the extent to which incarceration
affects the well-being of families is rarely discussed
in criminal justice debates and poorly understood by
those who have not been directly impacted.
	 The decision to send a person to jail or prison affects
the immediate family in myriad ways. On everything
from household income to physical and mental health
to school outcomes, and even future contact with
the criminal justice system,9 studies have shown that
incarceration has a negative impact on
family outcomes.
	 Even short periods of incarceration can make it
impossible for people to maintain employment,
make rent or mortgage payments, or fulfill family
obligations such as child support. This punishes not
just the individual, but any family members who
rely on their income for financial security.
	 Incarceration also imposes numerous direct costs
on families in the form of bail, legal and court fees,
and excessive visitation costs. For families that
are struggling to make ends meet, these additional
financial obligations carry a hefty price tag.
	 The second half of this report dives into the specific
challenges facing families who experience
incarceration, the burdens imposed on them by the
criminal justice system, and the documented negative
outcomes that result from family incarceration.

the impact of incarceration on families in america | background

20

There are more
than 1.5 million
people in state and
federal prisons on
any given day, and
nearly 11 million
admissions to local
jails each year.

In partnership with a research team based
out of Cornell University, FWD.us surveyed
a nationally representative sample of 4,041
adults age 18 or older to estimate the
prevalence of family incarceration. The survey
was conducted online and by phone in
English and Spanish in the summer of 2018
and asked about a wide range of experiences
associated with the incarceration of an
immediate family member.

Family
Incarceration

Prevalence of Family Incarceration
According to our survey results, one in two adults (45 percent) has had an
immediate family member incarcerated for at least one night in jail or prison.
In other words, approximately 113 million adults in the United States have
experienced incarceration in their family.10
	 This shocking new estimate of family incarceration may even be conservative
given that it limits immediate family members to parents, brothers, sisters,
children, current spouses or romantic partners, or anyone else with whom the
respondent has had a child. The most obvious exceptions to this definition are
grandparents and grandchildren, and many families are structured around
grandparents and older generations of relatives.
	 To better understand the intergenerational impact of family incarceration, and the
diverse family dynamics impacted by incarceration, respondents were also asked
about their experiences with incarceration for extended family members including
grandparents, grandchildren, cousins, aunts and uncles, nieces and nephews, and
in-laws. Using this broader definition of family, survey results show that 64 percent
of people have experienced incarceration in their family.
	 Today, there are an estimated 6.5 million adults with an immediate family member
currently incarcerated in jail or prison (1 in 38). Just under 40 percent of these
people reported that there are children under 18 in their household, suggesting the
overall number of people experiencing family incarceration is much higher than our
estimates which only include adults.
	 Indeed, adults age 18 to 29 reported having had a parent incarcerated at more
than twice the rate of respondents from other age groups (34 percent compared
to 14 percent). This reflects the rapid growth in jail and prison populations over the
past four decades, and speaks to the impact mass incarceration has had on several
generations of children in our country.

the impact of incarceration on families in america | prevalence of family incarceration 23

figure 1: estimates of family experience with incarceration

Short and Long-Term Incarceration
Even a single night in jail can be destabilizing and traumatic for the families involved.
These consequences are magnified the longer a person is incarcerated and
long prison sentences impose a whole new set of challenges on families that are
separated for years or even decades.
	 Our research shows that many families are exposed to short-term incarceration
and its negative effects, but that long prison sentences also affect a surprising
number of families. One quarter of those who have had a family member
incarcerated reported that it was for a single night, and 51 percent reported that
it was for less than one month. All told, one in five adults in the United States have
had an immediate family member incarcerated for up to one month.
	 Survey results also demonstrate how common it has become for families to deal
with long prison sentences. One in seven people have had an immediate family
member incarcerated for longer than one year, and one in 34 have had an immediate
family incarcerated for more than 10 years.

figure 2: estimates of short and long-term incarceration
Number of adults who have had a family member incarcerated

60%

50%

40%

30%

22.8%
20%

1 in 5

13.9%
1 in 7

10%

3.0%
1 in 34

0%
one month

one year

ten years

or less

or longer

or longer

the impact of incarceration on families in america | prevalence of family incarceration 25

figure 3: estimates of family incarceration by race and ethnicity
percentages of adults who have had an immediate family member spend at least one night in jail or prison

63%

Native American*

63%
Black

42%

White
*Because of the small sample size in our
survey (n=28), the confidence interval on this
estimate is much wider than on the other
racial/ethnic breakdowns and cannot be
broken out by duration of incarceration11

48%

Latino

Incarceration Does Not Affect All Communities or Families Equally
Incarceration impacts people from all walks of life and survey results show that
families from every demographic group have been affected by the rapid expansion
of jail and prison populations across the country.
	 This is evident when looking at prevalence rates of family incarceration by race
and ethnicity — more than four in ten people who are white, black, Latino, or Native
American have had an immediate family member spend at least one night in jail
or prison.
	 While the pervasiveness of incarceration is itself noteworthy, the racial disparities
that exist throughout the criminal justice system are also found in rates of family
incarceration. Prior research has shown that the incarceration rate for black adults
is nearly six times the rate for white adults, and one in three black men will be
incarcerated at some point in their lifetime.12 These findings are reinforced by our
survey results, which show that black people are far more likely to experience family
incarceration, particularly long sentences.
	 Incarceration also disproportionately impacts Latino people, families with low
household incomes, and people living in the South or West. These findings
reinforce the uneven impact of incarceration and the disproportionate burden that
incarceration imposes on low-income communities of color.

the impact of incarceration on families in america | prevalence of family incarceration

27

racial disparities in family incarceration
There is overwhelming evidence that the criminal justice system produces
racially disparate outcomes.13 Study after study has shown that black and Latino
people are disproportionately sent to jail and prison, and the harmful effects
of mass incarceration are concentrated in low-income communities of color.14
	 Our research supports these findings and provides a new way of looking at
the uneven impact of incarceration. Survey results show that black and Latino
people are far more likely to experience family incarceration, particularly long
prison sentences.
	 More than six in 10 (63 percent) black adults have had an immediate family
member incarcerated and nearly one-third (31 percent) have had an immediate
family member incarcerated for more than one year. These rates are 42 percent
and 10 percent, respectively, for white adults and 48 percent and 17 percent for
Latino adults.
	 In other words, black adults are 50 percent more likely than white adults to
experience family incarceration, and three times as likely to have had a family
member incarcerated for more than one year. Latino adults experience family
incarceration at rates slightly higher than white adults, but they are nearly twice
as likely to have had a family member in jail or prison for more than one year.

figure 4: rates of family incarceration by race and ethnicity
white

Longest immediate family incarceration

black

latino

63%
60%
52%
50%

48%
42%

42%

40%

37%
31%

30%

30%

24%
20%

18%

17%
10%

10%

0%
1 Day or More

More than 1 Day

More than 1 Month

More than 1 Year

the impact of incarceration on families in america | prevalence of family incarceration 28

economic disparities in family incarceration
Survey results also demonstrate that incarceration disproportionately impacts
families living in poverty and those with low incomes.
	 In fact, the share of people who have had an immediate family member
incarcerated increases as income declines. Adults with household incomes of
less than $25,000 per year are 61 percent more likely than adults with household
incomes of more than $100,000 to have had a family member incarcerated,
and three times more likely to have had a family member incarcerated for one
year or longer.
	 Socioeconomic and racial disparities are also intertwined and contribute to
differences within and across demographic groups. For white people in the
United States, socioeconomic status is a major indicator of exposure to family
incarceration. Thirty percent of white adults with a college degree have had an
immediate family member incarcerated, compared to 65 percent of those with
less than a high school diploma — more than double the rate. 	
	 This difference is smaller for black people, who experience family incarceration
at higher rates than white people regardless of their socioeconomic status.
Even among respondents with a college degree, 55 percent of black adults have
experienced family incarceration. The share without a high school diploma is
71 percent, the highest of any demographic group.

figure 5: rates of family incarceration by income bracket
at least
one day

Family incarceration more concentrated in lower income groups

longer than
a year

60%
53%

50%

50%

44%
30%

40%

33%
30%
24%
20%

14%
11%

10%

9%

8%

0%
$0 tzo $24,999

$25,999 to $49,999

$50,000 to $74,999

$75,000 to $99,999

100,000+

the impact of incarceration on families in america | prevalence of family incarceration

29

regional disparities in family incarceration
Where we live is a strong determinant of how likely
we are to experience incarceration. The seven states
with the highest incarceration rates are all in the
South, and 14 of the 15 highest incarcerating states
per capita are in the South or West. Our research
shows that the policies driving high incarceration
rates in those states also drive high rates of
family incarceration.
	 Indeed, 49 percent of adults living in the South
and West have had an immediate family member
incarcerated for at least one night in jail or prison.
The share in the Midwest is identical to the national
average (45 percent), and families living in the
Northeast are significantly less likely to experience
family incarceration — fewer than one-third
(31 percent) have had an immediate family member
spend at least one night in jail or prison. In other
words, you are almost 60 percent more likely to
experience family incarceration if you live in the
South or West than if you live in the Northeast.

Midwest

45%

Northeast

31%

West

49%
South

49%
30

the impact of incarceration on families in america | prevalence
ofof
family
incarceration
the impact
incarceration
on families in america | prevalence of family incarceration 30

incarceration affects families of every kind
While incarceration does not affect all communities
equally, there are noteworthy similarities across
groups. For example, adults who identify as Protestant
and Catholic are just as likely to report having had an
immediate family member incarcerated—43 percent
and 42 percent, respectively. The experience of having
an immediate family member incarcerated is also
not unique to any political party. In fact, rates of family
incarceration are nearly identical for Republicans
(43 percent) and Democrats (45 percent).

the impact of incarceration on families in america | prevalence of family incarceration 31

Harms Families

How Incarceration Harms Families
Incarceration affects every aspect of family life and
undermines the success and stability of families
across the country. In this section, we will dive deeper
into the negative impact that incarceration has on
family outcomes and highlight some of the policies
and practices that exacerbate the harm that families
experience when a loved one is incarcerated.
	 Many of the hardships that families face are
heightened when the person who is incarcerated has
children. Although we only surveyed adults over
the age of 18, prior research by the Annie E. Casey
Foundation (AECF) has estimated that more than
5.1 million children have had a parent incarcerated
at some point.15 Incarceration imposes a unique
burden on families with children, and the trauma
that these families experience leads to a wide range
of negative impacts such as reduced earnings16,
housing instability or homelessness17, poorer
school outcomes18 19, mental health issues.20 21 It
also reinforces existing social inequalities.22
	 Men are disproportionately likely to be incarcerated
(making up 90% of adults in jail or prison), but
our survey results show that women are more likely
to have experienced family incarceration. Forty-eight
percent of women have had an immediate family
member spend at least one night in jail or prison.
This is 15 percent higher than the 42 percent of men
who reported family incarceration, and nearly
one-third (31 percent) have had a spouse, partner or
co-parent incarcerated. The Essie Justice Group
has highlighted the emotional toll and extraordinary
financial burden that incarceration imposes on women.
As part of their research, they surveyed more than
2,200 women who had experienced incarceration in
their families through online and in-person surveys or
focus groups.

Many of the hardships that
families face are heightened
when the person who is
incarcerated has children.

Among their key findings:
•	 	 The majority (63 percent) of women reported that
their physical health has been significantly or
extremely affected by a loved one’s incarceration;
86 percent reported that their mental health had
been significantly or extremely affected
•	 	 One-third of women (32 percent) lost their
household’s primary source of income and nearly
70 percent became their family’s only wage earner
•	 	 More than one-third of women (35 percent)
experienced homelessness or other housing
insecurity because of family incarceration

Financial Consequences of Incarceration
Incarceration imposes a wide range of direct and
indirect costs on American families. These costs often
begin with the need to post bail to pay for someone’s
release from jail after arrest and continue through
the criminal justice process in the form of court fees
and fines. While a person is incarcerated, families
pay tremendous amounts of money to stay in contact
with their loved ones. Many corrections departments
charge excessive fees for phone calls and the costs
of visiting a loved one can be significant when that
person may be in prison hundreds or thousands of
miles away.
	 On top of these direct costs, families must replace
lost income, child support, and other financial
contributions when a wage earner is incarcerated.
Following release from prison, it can be difficult for
people to find and maintain employment and families
must bear the cost of another adult requiring food,
clothing, and other basic necessities. Many people
leave prison with large amounts of victim restitution,
monthly supervision fees, and other obligations that
must be met to remain in compliance with parole
requirements and avoid being sent back to prison.23
This criminal justice debt and the unaffordable
payments are essentially transferred to families, who
may forgo basic needs because failure to pay can
result in the family member being returned to jail or
prison.

33

Taken together, these costs impose a huge burden on
families already struggling with the emotional impact of
incarceration. Among the specific financial consequences:

Criminal justice fines and fees

Bail

As of 2011, the total amount of criminal justice
debt in the U.S. owed by individuals amounted to
around $50 billion.24 Even limited contact with
the criminal justice system can result in fines and
fees, which become more burdensome as one
progresses further into the system. These include
court fees, prosecution or public defense fees,
fines charged as a punishment, and user fees
(e.g., incarceration charges) which are assessed
for the main purpose of generating revenue for
the criminal justice system. According to a 2015
study, at least 40 states charge people for the
cost of their incarceration and levy additional fines
as part of the sentence that is imposed.25
	 Criminal justice fines and fees are a drain on
family income, limit access to important resources
such as credit and transportation, and create
insurmountable obstacles to reentry particularly
for low-income families.26 27 28 According to the
Ella Baker Center, defendants pay an average
of more than $13,000 in conviction-related costs
including restitution and attorney fees for each
criminal case.29 These fines and fees are often
paid by family members. In their study, 63 percent
of respondents said family members were primarily
responsible for covering conviction-related costs.
Almost half of family members primarily
responsible for paying court-related costs were
mothers, and one in ten were grandmothers.

On any given day, more than 60 percent of the
people detained in local jails have not been
convicted of any crime and are being held before
their trial.30 Many of these people are detained
not for public safety reasons but because their
families can’t afford to pay the cost of bail, which
researchers estimate is set at $10,000 for the
median defendant but can often be as little as
$100.31 The Pretrial Justice Institute estimates
that pretrial detention costs taxpayers as much
as $14 billion annually, but there are no national
estimates on what bail costs families.32
	 However, studies on local criminal justice
systems show how bail preys on poor families. For
instance, in 2015, New Orleans collected $4.5
million in the form of bail, fines, and fees from
people involved in the criminal justice system and
for-profit bail bond agents collected another $4.7
million from them and their families.33 A 2014
analysis of California’s bail bond industry found that
bail bondsmen took in approximately $308 million
per year from 2011–2013 in nonrefundable bail
premiums from Californians and their families. In
Los Angeles County alone, approximately $173
million in nonrefundable bail fees were paid to bail
agents between May 2016 and May 2017.34
	 Beyond the direct costs of bail, research has
shown that pretrial detention is destabilizing
for families and leads to even longer periods of
incarceration. According to several recent studies,
people who are held in jail before their trial are
more likely to receive a prison sentence and less
likely to be gainfully employed in the future.35

63 percent of respondents
said family members
were primarily responsible
for covering convictionrelated costs.

the impact of incarceration on families in america | how incarceration harms families

34

Child Support

Household Income

The amount of child support debt owed by
incarcerated and formerly incarcerated people has
risen in recent decades.36 Noncustodial parents,
mostly men, enter prison owing an average of more
than $10,000 in child support and accumulate
additional debt while incarcerated.37 The majority
of these people cannot afford these payments
and are unable to pay their debt, which subjects
them to further late penalties, interest charges, and
continually increasing debt.38
	 Paying child support is an important obligation
but enforcement mechanisms — from garnished
wages to withholding of tax returns and social
security benefits and suspended drivers licenses
— do not benefit children and actually jeopardize
family relationships and financial stability.39
According to the Ella Baker Center, nearly
two-thirds of formerly incarcerated parents are
unable to meet required child support payments
averaging $427 per month.40 The possibility of
being returned to jail or prison for failure to pay
child support may force some parents to flee,
which removes potential financial support but
also the parent from the child’s life completely.41

More than half (54 percent) of the parents who are
incarcerated were the primary breadwinners in their
families, and three-quarters were employed in the
month prior to their arrest.42 The loss of a family’s
primary income source is highly destabilizing and
can push families into financial disaster. A recent
study by the Ella Baker Center found that nearly two
in three families (65 percent) were unable to meet
basic needs such as food, housing, and medical
care while their family member was incarcerated.43
Studies on the impact of incarceration on economic
mobility and wage inequality have found that family
income declines 22 percent while a father is
incarcerated and remains 15 percent lower after
the person has been released.44
	 Research shows that incarceration of a father
has a significant impact on children’s
educational outcomes, and therefore economic
mobility. These effects are strongest with children
who are boys. Paternal incarceration is linked to
increased physical aggression among boys45 and
a wide range of negative education outcomes as
early as the age of three.46 The behavioral effects
are estimated to be stronger for children who
lived with their fathers prior to incarceration47 and
there is evidence that incarceration has a stronger
effect on children’s education outcomes than
other forms of paternal absence.48 A recent study
found that paternal incarceration affects
school readiness and increases the likelihood of
placement in special education classes.49 At least
some of these impacts on kids may be due to the
stigma of having a parent incarcerated — children
with incarcerated fathers are also more likely to
repeat a grade in elementary school, not due to test
scores or behavior problems but to teachers’
perceptions of children’s academic proficiency.50

the impact of incarceration on families in america | how incarceration harms families

35

The Health Consequences of Incarceration
The trauma of having an immediate family member incarcerated exacts a heavy
toll on the physical and mental health of parents, spouses, and children.51 52
These negative impacts are exacerbated, or perhaps caused, by the instability
that families experience when a loved one is in jail or prison, the strain that
incarceration places on family bonds, and the ways in which incarceration fails
to address substance use and mental health issues for either the person who
has been incarcerated or their loved ones.
	 Research has shown that maintaining family bonds is critical to the success of
families that experience incarceration, as well as the health and safety of our
communities, yet our current policies and practices impose numerous barriers on
supportive families. Visiting a loved one in jail or prison can be retraumatizing
and is cost prohibitive for many families. Many people also leave prison with even
greater needs for substance use treatment, employment or housing support, or
trauma recovery services.
The negative impacts on the physical and emotional well-being of families include:
Physical and mental health
Having a family member who has been incarcerated
has been shown to increase the risk of numerous
health outcomes including depression,
hypertension, obesity, and diabetes.53 54 55 56
These negative impacts are particularly common
in mothers who have incarcerated sons and the
children of incarcerated parents.57 58 59 60 Numerous
studies have found a strong correlation between
parental incarceration and depression and anxiety
among children.61 62 63 The experience of having
a parent incarcerated has been shown to cause
emotional stress and financial hardship, both of
which affect the emotional and developmental
growth of children.64

According to the Bureau of
Justice Statistics, more than
half (58 percent) of state
prisoners and two-thirds (63
percent) of sentenced jail
inmates meet the criteria for
drug dependence or use.

Incarceration also does nothing to help families
care for their loved ones with drug or alcohol
addiction. People often return from jail in a state
of crisis and incarceration exacerbates rather than
mitigates their needs. A recent study in the Journal
of Public Health starkly laid out the consequences
of incarceration for people suffering from opioid
addiction: those released from prison were 40 times
more likely than an average person to overdose in
the two weeks after their release.65
	 According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics,
more than half (58 percent) of state prisoners and
two-thirds (63 percent) of sentenced jail inmates
meet the criteria for drug dependence or use.66
This mirrors the findings in our survey, in which
more than half (54 percent) of respondents with an
incarcerated family member identified that their
family member had struggled with drug or alcohol
addiction. Research has consistently shown that
community-based treatment works better than
incarceration, and is the better option for people
with treatment needs and their families.67 68

the impact of incarceration on families in america | how incarceration harms families

36

Family bonds
Maintaining contact with a family member in
jail or prison is often difficult and expensive.
Families who are able to maintain contact
during incarceration have better outcomes
during incarceration and after release, yet
there are major barriers to sustaining family
bonds during incarceration.
	 Survey results show that only one in four
respondents was able to visit their
immediate family member while they were
incarcerated in jail or prison. This share
increases with the duration of incarceration,
but it’s still low—fewer than half of
respondents visited family members who
were incarcerated for longer than one year.
	 At least part of the reason for these low
visitation rates is the cost associated with
traveling to remote prisons in rural parts of
a state or another state altogether.
Researchers estimate that people in prison
are an average of 100 miles from home in
state prisons and 500 miles from home in
federal prisons.69
	 The cost of transportation, lodging, child
care, and lost income from taking time off
of work can therefore make visiting a loved
one unaffordable for many families.70
Some states also charge “background check
fees” for visitors of incarcerated family
members. For example, Arizona charges
adults a one-time $25 background check
fee to visit a state prison.
	 Beyond the financial costs of visitation,
the emotional trauma of visiting a loved
one behind bars can also be a barrier to
maintaining contact. Many families feel
mistreated by corrections officials when
visiting loved ones, and respondents
to our survey used words such as “scary,”
“degrading,” “horrible,” and “cold” to
describe the experience.

Researchers estimate that
people in prison are an
average of 100 miles from
home in state prisons and
500 miles from home in
federal prisons.

the impact of incarceration on families in america | how incarceration harms families

37

figure 8: visitation rates by duration of incarceration
Survey results show that only one in four respondents was able to
visit their immediate family member while they were incarcerated in
jail or prison. Half of respondents whose loved ones were locked up
for more than a year were never able to visit.

figure 9: words used by respondents to describe visiting family members in jail or prison

And even if families are able
to visit, the experience is most
often described as...

Cold

Uneasy

Horrible

Disgusting

Terrible
Restrictive

Hell

Degrading

Dark

Scary

Maintaining contact by telephone can also be cost
prohibitive for many families. The private
companies that provide phone services in jails and
prisons charge exorbitant fees and calls can cost
families more than $1.20 per minute (six times the
rate of a standard collect call).71 These companies
are charged commissions by corrections agencies,
which allowed state and local governments
to collect $460 million in fees in 2013 alone.72
Family stability
Incarceration also impacts the stability of American
families and undermines efforts to keep families
together. Numerous studies have found that male
incarceration is strongly correlated with a lower
likelihood of marriage and higher rates of divorce
and separation.73 Incarceration is far more likely to
sever family ties than to strengthen them, and has
a particularly negative impact on the emotional
support systems, living arrangements, and parental
custody of children.
	 For families with children, incarceration can also
result in permanent family separation. Researchers
estimate that increases in female incarceration
rates explain 40 percent of the increase in foster
care caseloads, which more than doubled between
1985 and 2000.74 The Adoption and Safe
Families Act (AFSA), a federal law enacted in 1997,
requires that states terminate parental rights if
a child has been in foster care for 15 of the previous
22 months.75 Considering that the average length
of stay in prison is 29 months, this law effectively
guarantees that incarcerated parents will lose their
parental rights if a family member cannot take
custody of their kids.76
	 These are not trivial matters. Maintaining strong
family connections is one of the building blocks of
safe and healthy communities.77 In fact, research
has shown that sustaining contact with supportive
family members during incarceration increases the
likelihood of success after release, and those who
have more contact with their families while
incarcerated are less likely to be re-incarcerated.78

the impact of long
incarceration
According to the Urban Institute, the amount of
time that people are serving in prison has increased
in every state since 2000.79 Even as states make
important progress toward reducing imprisonment
rates, in particular for low-level drug offenses, the
number of people in prison serving the longest prison
sentences continues to increase.80
	 Research has consistently shown that long prison
sentences do not deter crime but the high
imprisonment rate that results from them actually
makes us less safe.81 Among others, the Vera
Institute of Justice has noted the particular strain
that is placed on families that must endure long prison
sentences. This is the “prison paradox” — the family
disruption that results from incarceration erases any
public safety benefits that might otherwise be
realized from deterrence or incapacitation effects.82

Conclusion

Conclusion
The massive rise in incarceration over the past few
decades has touched nearly every aspect of
American society. This is particularly true for the
health and stability of our families.
	 Incarceration does not just impact the person
who is sent to jail or prison, it reverberates into the
lives of their loved ones with severe consequences
for their financial security, health, and emotional
well-being. Even short periods of incarceration are
destabilizing for families and the negative impacts
last long beyond the end of a jail or prison sentence.
	 We set out in this project to estimate the reach of
incarceration into our families and the results stunned
us. Nearly one in two adults — approximately 113
million people living in the United States — has had
an immediate family member spend at least one night
in jail or prison. One in seven adults has had an
immediate family member incarcerated for more than
one year, and one in 34 has had a loved one taken
away for 10 years or more.
	 The American family faces a harsh new
reality: incarceration and its harmful effects
are commonplace.
	 Yet rather than support these families, the
criminal justice system erects additional barriers to
their success in the form of unaffordable fines and
fees, excessive bail amounts, exorbitant visitation
costs, and limited options for treatment and
rehabilitation. Families victimized by incarceration
become retraumatized by the loss of household
income, weakened family bonds, poor physical and
mental health, and other negative outcomes that
result from having a loved one behind bars.

The results of this groundbreaking new research
should serve as a wake-up call and a stark reminder
of how much work is needed to alleviate the harms
caused by mass incarceration and unravel the
complicated tangle of laws that perpetuate it. While
many states and local governments have begun
to reduce the number of people in prison or jail, we
have a long way to go before our policies match our
aspirations when it comes to supporting families.
	 Fortunately, there are organizers and advocates
across the country advancing reforms at the local,
state, and federal level to address America’s
incarceration crisis and its impact on families.
These reformers are prioritizing policy changes that
significantly reduce incarceration and shrink the
number of financial consequences like bail
and fees and fines that often fall on families. Many
other organizations are helping people succeed
after they’ve been released from jail or prison and
facilitating family reunification.
	 These efforts will improve outcomes for families
and our communities, but we must build on them
to make an even bigger dent in incarceration and
reduce its harmful effects. This is not an issue that
can be ignored and the time for action is now.

the impact of incarceration on families in america | conclusion

43

Methodology
These groundbreaking estimates on family
incarceration stem from the results of online and
phone surveys conducted on a nationally
representative sample of 4,041 adults age 18 and
older in the summer of 2018. The survey was
conducted in English and Spanish and asked about
a wide range of experiences associated with
the incarceration of an immediate family member
including parents, siblings, children, spouses,
and partners. This section describes the research
team, survey development, methodology, and
analysis conducted.
Research team
The survey was developed and overseen by a team
of experts with deep knowledge of mass
incarceration and survey methodology. This team
included a contingent of researchers at Cornell
University who have worked together extensively
(Principal Investigator Christopher Wildeman,
Peter Enns, Youngmin Yi, Maria Fitzpatrick, and Alyssa
Goldman,) and a number of other scholars of mass
incarceration from other institutions (Sara Wakefield
of Rutgers University, Hedwig Lee of Washington
University, Megan Comfort of the University of
California San Francisco, Emily Wang of Yale School of
Medicine, and Christopher Muller of the University of
California Berkeley).
	 FWD.us staff worked closely with the research
team throughout survey development and analysis.
Survey development
The survey was developed in three stages, with a focus
on the definition of immediate and extended family.
In the first stage, the research team developed and
circulated draft questions. In the second
stage, the research team and FWD.us staff met in
Ithaca, New York for a daylong conference to discuss
the specifics of the survey. In the third and final stage,
the feedback from this conference was funneled into
a polished version of questions on family member
incarceration that were improved in collaboration
with the National Opinion Research Center, who
administered the survey.

	 Through this development process, the decision
was made to include both a narrow family question
and a more expansive question that would account
for and include non-traditional family structures.
Immediate family was thus defined as: parents,
children, siblings, current romantic partners, and
anyone else with whom a respondent had a child.
For parents, children, and siblings, step, foster, and
adoptive relatives were also included. This definition
is close to a “traditional” or “nuclear” family definition
but includes people (like co-parents) who would
consistently have a major impact on an individual’s
life if they were to be incarcerated.
	 In order not to bias the results by constraining
the survey definition of family to a family structure
that may be more common in certain lessimpacted communities, however, a second family
definition was included in the survey. This definition
asked respondents if they had ever had any other
family member they felt close to who experienced
incarceration and then asked them to specify
the relationship of the family member who had. By
specifying “closeness” but allowing the respondent
to define the parameters, the intent was to capture
family members such as grandparents or cousins
who might play a large role in the respondent’s life
without forcing a narrow definition of “family.”
	 In addition to the core questions on family member
incarceration, the research team included questions
about the lives of individuals who had experienced
family member incarceration. A host of questions
on civic participation, health, own criminal justice
contact, and opinions about the criminal justice
system were also included in the survey. Because the
survey is cross-sectional, none of these questions
can be used to make causal claims about the effect of
family member incarceration on individuals. But these
questions nonetheless provide unique insight into
the lives of those who experience family member
incarceration and how their lives compare to similar
individuals who did not experience it. Analysis on
these additional data points will be released over the
next year.

the impact of incarceration on families in america | methodology

45

Survey methodology
The survey was fielded by the National Opinion
Research Center (NORC) at the University of Chicago.
NORC maintains a well-regarded AmeriSpeak
panel. NORC uses field staff for in-person recruitment
to enhance the number of young adults, households
of lower socioeconomic status, households that
lack access to the internet, and other hard-to-reach
households are included in the panel. The survey was
conducted in both Spanish and English, and could be
taken over the computer or over the phone.
	 NORC conducted 4,041 surveys with American
adults over a roughly six-week period during July and
August of 2018. All 1,808 respondents who answered
the screener questions indicating that they had an
immediate family member who had been incarcerated
for one night or more was given the full survey. An
additional randomly selected 1,010 individuals who
did not report any immediate family member
incarceration lasting longer than one night were asked
to complete the full survey; these individuals were
asked about extended family member incarceration
experiences as well as other outcome variables and
their own criminal history experience to provide
a “control” group for further analysis. Response rates
for the survey were well within the acceptable range,
and all indications suggest that the final survey
of respondents was extremely representative of all
American adults. Further details on the survey
methodology will be available in a forthcoming article
authored by the academic research team.
Analysis
All of the analyses of the survey data collected by
NORC were weighted to be representative of
the American adult population. All estimates were
produced by members of the research team and
FWD.us staff and cross-checked for accuracy. All
analyses presented in this report are based on
respondents who (1) said that they had ever had an
immediate/extended family member incarcerated
and (2) clarified the type of family member this
person was in a series of follow-up questions. Just
under five percent of the sample responded that they

had ever had an immediate family member
incarcerated but did not specify the family member
type. These individuals were not included in counts
of family member incarceration experience, thus
making all of the estimates presented in this report
somewhat conservative.
	 Demographic information was provided by NORC
from their AmeriSpeak panel information rather than
asked in the survey itself. Political party identification,
household income, religious affiliation, race/ethnicity,
and other demographic information is self-reported
upon recruitment into the panel.
	 When a respondent identified that more than
one family member had spent time in jail or prison,
one family member was randomly selected for
follow-up questions. In total prevalence numbers,
the incarceration duration presented is the longest
duration for any family member incarceration
spell reported by the respondent, but for some of
the follow-up questions pertaining to a specific
amily member the length of incarceration related
to that randomly selected individual is used.
Data availability
The data used to produce this report can be
downloaded at EverySecond.fwd.us or through the
Roper Center for Public Opinion Research at Cornell
University in a variety of formats. All of the code used to
generate the estimates is also available free of charge
on the Roper website.
	 In addition to making the core data used in this
report available immediately and free of charge,
the full data contained in the survey will be available
through the Roper Center free of charge on
September 1, 2019.

the impact of incarceration on families in america | methodology

46

References

References
The Annie E. Casey Foundation. (2016) A Shared Sentence:
The Devastating Toll of Parental Incarceration on Kids,
Families, and Communities. Baltimore, MD: The Annie E.
Casey Foundation. Available at:
https://www.aecf.org/resources/a-shared-sentence/.
Anthony, Karen and Linda Mellgren (2009). Child support and
reentry: Basic facts and promising practices. Corrections
Today, 71(6), 84-88). Also EBC Report.
Balko, R. (2018). There’s overwhelming evidence that the
criminal-justice system is racist. Here’s the proof. The
Washington Post. [online] Available at:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/opinions/
wp/2018/09/18/theres-overwhelming-evidence-that-thecriminal-justice-system-is-racist-heres-the-proof/?utm_
term=.1f05e1b02672.
Bonczar, Thomas P., Timothy A. Hughes, Doris James Wilson,
and Paula M. Ditton. 2011. “National Corrections Reporting
Program: Time Served In State Prison, By Offense, Release
Type, Sex, and Race” Bureau of Justice Statistics, U.S.
Department of Justice, Washington, DC. Available online at
https://www.bjs.gov/index.cfm?ty=pbdetail&iid=2045.
Bronson, J. (2018). Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS)- Justice
Expenditur and Employment Extracts, 2013 - Final. [online]
BJS.gov. Available at:
https://www.bjs.gov/index.cfm?ty=pbdetail&iid=6308.
Bronson, J., Zimmer, S. and Berzofsky, M. 2017. Drug
Use, Dependence, and Abuse Among State Prisoners and
Jail Inmates, 2007-2009. Washington DC: Bureau of
Justice Statistics. Available at:
https://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/dudaspji0709.pdf.
Bucknor, C. and Barber, A. (2016) The Price We Pay:
Economic Costs of Barriers to Employment for Former
Prisoners and People Convicted of Felonies. Center
for Economic and Policy Research. Available at
http://cepr.net/images/stories/reports/employmentprisoners-felonies-2016-06.pdf?v=5.
Bureau of Justice Statistics. 2018. “Jail Inmates of 2016.”
Bureau of Justice Statistics, U.S. Department of Justice.
Available at:
https://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/ji16_sum.pdf
Cullen, F.T., Jonson, C.L., & Nagin, D.S. (2011). Prisons Do
Not Reduce Recidivism: The High Cost of Ignoring Science.
The Prison Journal 9 (3_suppl): 48S-65S. Available at:
http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/
0032885511415224.

Davis A. 1992. Men’s imprisonment: the financial cost to
women and children. In Prisoners’ Children: What are the
Issues? Ed. R Shaw, pp. 74-85. London: Routledge.
Douglas, Evans N. 2014. The Debt Penalty - Exposing the
Financial Barriers to Offender Reintegration. New York: NY:
Research & Evaluation Center, John Jay College of Criminal
Justice, City University of New York.
Fritsch, T.A., Burkhead, J.D. 1981. Behavioral reactions of
children to parental absence due to imprisonment. Family
Relations 30(1):83-88.
Gabel, S. 1992. Children of incarcerated and criminal parents:
Adjustment, behavior, and prognosis. Bulletin of the
American Academy of Psychiatry & the Law 20(1): 33-45.
Geller Amanda, Irwin Garfinkel, Carey Cooper, and Ronald
Mincy 2009. Parental incarceration and childhood wellbeing:
Implications for urban families. Social Science Quarterly
90:1186-202.
Geller, Amanda, Carey E. Cooper, Irwin Garfinkel, Ofira
Schwartz-Soicher, and Ronald B. Mincy. 2012. Beyond
Absenteeism: father incarceration and child development.
Demography 49 (1): 49-76.
Green, K.M., Ensminger, M.E., Robertson, J.A., Juon, H.
2006. “The Impact of Adult Sons’ Incarceration on African
American Mothers’ Psychological Distress’ Journal of
Marriage and Family 68: 430-41.
Haney, Lynne. 2018. “Incarcerated Fatherhood: The
Entanglements of Child Support Debt and Mass
Imprisonment.” American Journal of Sociology 124(1):1-48.
Harris, Alexes, Heather Evans, and Katherine Beckett. 2010.
“Drawing Blood from Stones: Legal Debt and Social
Inequality in the Contemporary U.S.” American Journal of
Sociology 115(6):1755-1799.
Harris, Alexes. 2016. A Pound of Flesh: Monetary Sanctions
as a Punishment for the Poor. New York: Russell Sage.
Haskins Anna R. 2014. Unintended Consequences: Effects
of paternal incarceration on school readiness and later
special education placement. Sociological Science 1:141-58.
Haskins, Anna R. 2016. “Beyond Boys’ Bad Behavior:
Paternal Incarceration and Cognitive Development in Middle
Childhood.” Social Forces 95(2):861-892.
Huebner, Beth M. 2005. The effect of incarceration on
marriage and work over the life course. Justice Quarterly
22:281-303.
the impact of incarceration on families in america | references

48

Kabel, D. and Cowhig M. (2018) Correctional Populations in
the United States, 2016. Available at: https://www.bjs.gov/
content/pub/pdf/cpus16.pdf
Laisne, M., Wool, J. and Henrichson, C. (2017). Past Due:
Examining the Costs and Consequences of Charging for
Justice in New Orleans. [online] Vera
Institute of Justice. Available at: https://www.vera.org/
publications/past-duecosts-consequences-charging-forjustice-new-orleans.
La Vigne, Nancy G. 2014. The cost of keeping prisoners
hundreds of miles from home. [online] Urban Institute.
Available at: https://www.urban.org/urban-wire/costkeeping-prisoners-hundreds-miles-home.
Lee, Hedwig and Christopher Wildeman. 2013. Things fall
apart: Health consequences of mass imprisonment for
African American women. Review of Black Political Economy
40:39-52.
Lee, Hedwig, Christopher Wildeman, Emily A. Wang, Niki
Matusko, and James S. Jackson. 2014. A heavy burden:
The cardiovascular health consequences of having a family
member incarcerated. American Journal of Public Health
104 (3): 421-27.
Lee, R., Fang, X. & Luo, F. 2013. The impact of parental
incarceration on the physical and mental health of young
adults. Pediatrics 131(4):88-95.
Leigh, Courtney, Sarah Eppler-Epstein, Elizabeth Pelletier,
Ryan King, and Serena Lei. 2017. A Matter of Time:
The Causes and Consequences of Rising Time Served in
America’s Prisons. The Urban Institute Accessed at:.
https://apps.urban.org/features/long-prison-terms/trends.
html.
Lopoo, Leonard M., and Bruce Western. 2005. Incarceration
and stability of marital unions. Journal of Marriage and
Family 67:721-34
Lynch, J. P., & Sabol, W. J. (2004, March). Assessing the
effects of mass incarceration on informal social control
in communities. Criminology & Public Policy, 3(2), 267–294.
Massoglia, Michael, Brianna Remster, and Ryan D. King.
2014: Stigma or separation? Understanding the
incarceration-divorce relationship. Social Forces 90:133-56.
McVay, Doug, Vincent Schiraldi, and Jason Ziedenberrg.
2004. “Treatment or Incarceration? National and State
Findings on the Efficacy and Cost Savings of Drug Treatment
Versus Imprisonment.” Justice Policy Institute. Washington,
D.C. Available at: http://www.justicepolicy.org/uploads/
justicepolicy/ documents/04-01_rep_
mdtreatmentorincarceration_ac-dp.pdf.

Mumola, C.J. 2000. “Incarcerated Parents and Their
Children.” Report. Bureau of Justice Statistics, U.S.
Department of Justice, Washington, DC. Available online
at http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/pub/pdf/iptc.pdf.
Murray, J., Janson, C.-G., & Farrington, D.P (2007) Crime
in Adult Offspring of Prisoners: A Cross-National
Comparison of Two Longitudinal Samples. Criminal Justice
and Behavior, 34(1) 133-149. http://journals.sagepub.com/
doi/10.1177/0093854806289549.
Murray, Joseph and David Farrington. 2008. “The Effects
of Parental Imprisonment on Children.” Crime and Justice
37:133-206.
National Research Council. 2014. The Growth of
Incarceration in the United States: Exploring Causes and
Consequences. Washington, DC: The National
Academies Press. https://doi.org/10.17226/18613.
Patterson, Elizabeth G. (2008). Civil contempt and the
indigent child support obligor: The silent return of
debtor’s prison. Cornell Journal of Law and Public Policy,
18(1), 95-141.
Pearson, Jessica (2004). Building debt while doing time:
Child support and incarceration. Judge’s Journal 1(43), 5-12.
The Pew Charitable Trusts, 2010. Collateral Costs:
Incarceration’s Effect on Economic Mobility. Washington
DC: The Pew Charitable Trusts. Retrieved from:
https://www.pewtrusts.org/~/media/legacy/uploadedfiles/
pcs_assets/2010/collateralcosts1pdf.pdf.
Pretrial Detention Workgroup (2017). Pretrial Detention
Reform: Recommendations to the Chief Justice. [online]
Available at: https://newsroom.courts.ca.gov/internal_
redirect/cms.ipressroom.com.s3.amazonaws.com/262/
files/20179/PDRReport-FINAL%2010-23-17.pdf
Pretrial Justice Institute (2017). Pretrial Justice: How
much does it cost? Available at: https://university.pretrial.
org/HigherLogic/System/DownloadDocumentFile.
ashx?DocumentFileKey=4c666992-0b1b-632a-13cbb4ddc66fadcd&force
Dialog=0.
Rabuy, B. and Kopf, D. (2016). Detaining the Poor: How
money bail perpetuates an endless cycle of poverty and jail
time. Prison Policy Initiative. Available at:
https://www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/incomejails.html.
Ranapurwala, Shabbar I., Meghan E. Shanahan, Apostolos
A. Alexandridis, Scott K. Proescholdbell, Rebecca B.
Naumann, Daniel Edwards Jr., and Stephen W. Marshall.
2018. “Opioid Overdose Mortality Among Former North
Carolina Inmates: 2000-2015. American Journal of Public
Health 108(9): 1207-1213.

the impact of incarceration on families in america | references

49

Roman, Caterina G. and Nathan Link. 2015. Child Support,
Debt, and Prisoner Reentry: Examining the Influences of
Prisoners’ Legal and Financial Obligations on Reentry. Final
Report to the National Institute of Justice. Philadelphia, PA:
Temple University.
Sack, W.H., Seidler, J., and Thomas, S. 1976. The children of
imprisoned parents: A psychosocial exploration. American
Journal of Orthopsychiatry 46(4):618-28.
Sakala, L. (2014) Breaking Down Mass Incarceration in the
2010 Census. [online] Prison Policy Initiative. Available at:
https://www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/rates.html
Saneta deVuono-powell, Chris Schweidler, Alicia Walters, and
Azadeh Zohrabi. Who Pays? The True Cost of Incarceration on
Families. Oakland, CA: Ella Baker Center, Forward Together,
Research Action Design, 2015. Retrieved from:
https://ellabakercenter.org/sites/default/files/downloads/
who-pays.pdf.

Thoennes, Nancy (2002). Child support profile:
Massachusetts incarcerated and paroled parents. Denver,
CO: Center for Policy Research.
Thoennes, Nancy (2002). Child support profile:
Massachusetts incarcerated and paroled parents. Denver,
CO: Center for Policy Research.
Wakefield, Sara, and Christopher Uggen. “Incarceration and
Stratification.” Annual Review of Sociology 36:387-406.
Wakefield, Sara, and Christopher Uggen. “Incarceration and
Stratification.” Annual Review of Sociology 36:387-406.
Western, Bruce, Leonard M. Lopoo, and Sara McLanahan.
2004. Incarceration and the bonds among parents in fragile
families. In Imprisoning America: The social effects of mass
incarceration, eds. Mary Patillo, David F. Weiman, and Bruce
Western, 21-45. New York, NY: Russell Sage Foundation.

The Sentencing Project. “Criminal Justice Facts”. Available at:
https://www.sentencingproject.org/criminal-justice-facts/.

Wildeman, Christopher. “Parental Incarceration, Child
Homelessness, and the Invisible Consequences of Mass
Imprisonment.” ANNALS of the American Academy of
Political and Social Science 651:74-96.

Shanahan, Ryan and Sandra Villalobos Agudelo. 2012. “The
Family and Recidivism.” Vera Institute. Available at:
https://www.prisonpolicy.org/scans/vera/the-family-andrecidivism.pdf.

Wildeman, C., Andersen, S.H., Lee, H. & Karlson, K.B
2014. Parental incarceration and child mortality in Denmark.
American Journal of Public Health 104(3):428-433.

Stemen, Don. 2017. The Prison Paradox: More Incarceration
will not Make Us Safer. Vera Institute of Justice. Available
at: https://storage.googleapis.com/vera-web-assets
/downloads/Publications/for-the-record-prison-paradoxincarceration-not-safer/legacy_downloads/for-therecord-prison-paradox_02.pdf.
Swann, Christopher A. and Michelle Sheran Sylvester. 2006.
The foster care crisis: What caused caseloads to grow.
Demography 43(2): 309-335
Turney, K., Schnittker, J., Wildeman, C. 2012. Those They
Leave Behind: Paternal Incarceration and Maternal
Instrumental Support. Journal of Marriage and Family
74:1149-65.
Turney, Kristin, and Anna R. Haskins 2014. Falling behind?
Children’s early grade retention after paternal incarceration.
Sociology of Education 87(4):241-58.

Wildeman, Christopher, Alyssa Goldman, and Kristin Turney.
2018. “Parental Incarceration and Child Health in the United
States.” Epidemiologic Reviews 40:146-156.
Wildeman, Christopher, Alyssa Goldman, and Hedwig
Lee. “Health Consequences of Family Member Incarceration
for Adults in the Household.” Public Health Reports
(Forthcoming).
Williams, T. 2015. The High Cost of Calling the Imprisoned.
The New York Times. [online] Available at:
https://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/31/us/steep-costs-ofinmate-phone-calls-are-under-scrutiny.html.
Zarkin, Gary A. Alexander J. Cowell, Katherine A. Hicks. 2012.
“Lifetime Benefits and Costs of Diverting Substance-Abusing
Offenders from State Prison. Crime and Delinquency 61(6):
829-850.

Turney, K. 2014. Stress proliferation across generations?
Examining the relationship between parental incarceration
and childhood health. Journal of Health and Social Behavior
44(30):302-319.
Subramanian, R., Delaney, R., Fishman, N. and McGarry,
P. (2015) Incarceration’s Front Door: The Misuse of Jails
in America. New York, NY: Vera Institute of Justice.
Available at: https://storage.googleapis.com/vera-webassets/downloads/Publications/incarcerations-front-doorthe-misuse-of-jails-in-america/legacy_downloads/
incarcerations-front-door-report_02.pdf.

the impact of incarceration on families in america | references

50

Endnotes
1.	 Bureau of Justice Statistics. (2018) Correctional
	 Populations in the United States, 2016. Available at: 		
	https://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/cpus16.pdf
	 [Accessed 1 Nov. 2018]

11.	 Because of the small sample size in our survey
		 (n=28), the confidence interval on this estimate is much
		 wider than on the other racial/ethnic breakdowns 		
		 and cannot be broken out by duration of incarceration.

2..	Bureau of Justice Statistics. 2018. “Jail Inmates of 2016.” 		
	 Bureau of Justice Statistics, U.S. Department of Justice. 	
	 Available at:
	https://www.bjs.govcontent/pub/pdf/ji16_sum.pdf

12.	 Sakala, L. (2014) Breaking Down Mass Incarceration
	
in the 2010 Census. [online] Prison Policy Initiative.
	
Available at:
	https://www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/rates.html

3..	The Sentencing Project. “Criminal Justice Facts”.
	 Available at: https://www.sentencingproject.org/
	criminal-justice-facts/

13.	 Balko, R. (2018). There’s overwhelming evidence that
	
the criminal-justice system is racist. Here’s the proof.
	
The Washington Post. [online] Available at:
	https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/
	opinions/wp/2018/09/18/theres-overwhelming	evidence-that-the-criminal-justice-system-is-racist	heres-the-proof/?utm_term=.1f05e1b02672
	
[Accessed 1 Nov. 2018]

4.	 Bronson, J. (2018). Bureau of Justice Statistics
	 (BJS)-Justice Expenditure and Employment Extracts, 		
	 2013-Final. [online] BJS.gov. Available at:
	https://www.bjs.gov/index.cfm?ty=pbdetail&iid=6308
	 [Accessed 1 Nov. 2018].
5.	 Bucknor, C. and Barber, A. (2016) The Price We Pay:
	 Economic Costs of Barriers to Employment for
	 Former Prisoners and People Convicted of Felonies.
	 Center for Economic and Policy Research. Available at:
	http://cepr.net/images/stories/reports/employment	prisoners-felonies-2016-06.pdf?v=5
	 [Accessed 1 Nov. 2018].

14.	Ibid.
15.	 The Annie E. Casey Foundation. (2016) A Shared
	
Sentence: The Devastating Toll of Parental Incarceration 		
	
on Kids, Families, and Communities. Baltimore, MD:
	
The Annie E. Casey Foundation. Retrieved from:
	https://www.aecf.org/resources/a-shared-sentence/.

6.	 The Sentencing Project. “Criminal Justice Facts”.
	 Available at: https://www.sentencingproject.org/
	 criminal-justice-facts/.Retrieved Nov. 1, 2018.

16.	 Lynch, J. P., & Sabol, W. J. (2004, March). Assessing the 		
	
effects of mass incarceration on informal social control
	
in communities. Criminology & Public Policy 3(2), 		
	267–294.

7.	 National Research Council. 2014. The Growth of
	 Incarceration in the United States: Exploring Causes
	 and Consequences. Washington, DC: The National 		
	 Academies Press. https://doi.org/10.17226/18613.

17.	
	
	
	

Wildeman, Christopher. “Parental Incarceration, Child 		
Homelessness and the Invisible Consequences
of Mass Imprisonment.” ANNALS of the American
Academy of Political and Social Science 651:74-96.

8.	Ibid.

18.	
	
	
	

Haskins Anna R. 2014. Unintended Consequences: 		
Effects of paternal incarceration on school readiness
and later special education placement. Sociological 		
Science 1:141-58.

9.	 Murray, J., Janson, C.-G., & Farrington, D.P (2007) 		
	 Crime in Adult Offspring of Prisoners: A Cross	 National Comparison of Two Longitudinal Samples.
	 Criminal Justice and Behavior, 34(1) 133-149.
	http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/
	0093854806289549
10.	 Estimated from U.S. Census Bureau population
		 estimates for July 1, 2017 https://www.census.gov/		
		quickfacts/fact/table/US/PST045217

19.	 Haskins, Anna R. 2016. “Beyond Boys’ Bad Behavior: 		
	
Paternal Incarceration and Cognitive Development in
	
Middle Childhood.” Social Forces 95(2): 861-892.
20.	Ibid.
21.	 Wildeman, Christopher, Alyssa Goldman, and Kristin 		
	
Turney. 2018. “Parental Incarceration and Child
	
Health in the United States.” Epidemiologic Reviews
	40:146-156.

the impact of incarceration on families in america | endnotes

51

22.	 Wakefield, Sara, and Christopher Uggen. “Incarceration 	
	
and Stratification.” Annual Review of Sociology
	36:387-406.
23.	
	
	
	

Douglas, Evans N. 2014. The Debt Penalty - Exposing 		
the Financial Barriers to Offender Reintegration. New 		
York: NY: Research & Evaluation Center, John Jay 		
College of Criminal Justice, City University of New York.

24.	Ibid.
25.	 Saneta deVuono-powell, Chris Schweidler, Alicia 		
	
Walters, and Azadeh Zohrabi. Who Pays? The
	
True Cost of Incarceration on Families. Oakland, CA:
	
Ella Baker Center, Forward Together, Research Action
	
Design, 2015. Retrieved from: https://ellabakercenter.		
	org/sites/default/files/downloads/who-pays.pdf
26.	
	
	
	

Harris, Alexes, Heather Evans, and Katherine Beckett. 		
2010. “Drawing Blood from Stones: Legal Debt 		
and Social Inequality in the Contemporary U.S.” 		
American Journal of Sociology 115(6):1755-1799.

27.	 Harris, Alexes. 2016. A Pound of Flesh: Monetary
	
Sanctions as a Punishment for the Poor. New York:
	
Russell Sage.
28.	
	
	
	

Haney, Lynne. 2018. “Incarcerated Fatherhood:
The Entanglements of Child Support Debt and
Mass Imprisonment.” American Journal of
Sociology 124(1):1-48.

29.	 Saneta deVuono-powell, Chris Schweidler, Alicia 	
	
Walters, and Azadeh Zohrabi. Who Pays? The True Cost 	
	
of Incarceration on Families. Oakland, CA: Ella Baker
	
Center, Forward Together, Research Action Design,
	
2015. Retrieved from: https://ellabakercenter.org/sites
	default/files/downloads/who-pays.pdf

33.	 Laisne, M., Wool, J. and Henrichson, C. (2017).
	
Past Due: Examining the Costs and Consequences
	
of Charging for Justice in New Orleans. [online]
	
Vera Institute of Justice. Available at:
	https://www.vera.org/publications/past-due-costs	consequences-charging-for-justice-new-orleans
	
[Accessed 1 Nov. 2018].
34.	 Pretrial Detention Workgroup (2017). Pretrial Detention 	
	
Reform: Recommendations to the Chief Justice.
	
[online] Available at:
	https://newsroom.courts.ca.gov/internal_redirect/	
	cms.ipressroom.com.s3.amazonaws.com/262/		
	files/20179/PDRReport-FINAL%2010-23-17.pdf
35.	 Subramanian, R., Delaney, R., Fishman, N. and
	
McGarry, P. (2015) Incarceration’s Front Door: The
	
Misuse of Jails in America. New York, NY: Vera
	
Institute of Justice. Available at:
	https://storage.googleapis.com/vera-web-assets/
	downloads/Publications/incarcerations-front-door	the-mis-use-of-jails-in-america/legacy_downloads/
	incarcerations-front-door-report_02.pdf.
36.	
	
	
	
	

Roman, Caterina G. and Nathan Link. 2015. Child
Support, Debt, and Prisoner Reentry: Examining the 		
Influences of Prisoners’ Legal and Financial Obligations 		
on Reentry. Final Report to the National Institute of 		
Justice. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University. 	

37.	 Pearson, Jessica (2004). Building debt while doing time: 		
	
Child support and incarceration. Judge’s Journal 1(43), 		
	5-12.
38.	 Thoennes, Nancy (2002). Child support profile:
	
Massachusetts incarcerated and paroled parents.
	
Denver, CO: Center for Policy Research.

39.	
30.	 Pretrial Justice Institute (2017). Pretrial Justice: How 		
	
	
much does it cost? Available at:
	https://university.pretrial.org/HigherLogic/System/		 	
	DownloadDocumentFile.ashx?DocumentFileKey=4		 	
	c666992-0b1b-632a-13cb-b4ddc66fadcd&force		 40.	
	Dialog=0
	

Anthony, Karen and Linda Mellgren (2009). Child
support and reentry: Basic facts and promising
practices. Corrections Today, 71(6), 84-88). Also
EBC Report.

Saneta deVuono-powell, Chris Schweidler, Alicia 		
Walters, and Azadeh Zohrabi. Who Pays? The True
	
Cost of Incarceration on Families. Oakland, CA:
	
Ella Baker Center, Forward Together, Research Action 		
	
Design, 2015. Retrieved from: https://ellabakercenter.		
	org/sites/default/files/downloads/who-pays.pdf

31.	 Rabuy, B. and Kopf, D. (2016). Detaining the Poor:
	
How money bail perpetuates an endless cycle of poverty 		
	
and jail time. Prison Policy Initiative. Available at:
	
https://www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/incomejails.html 		
	c666992-0b1b-632a-13cb-b4ddc66fadcd&force		 41.	 Patterson, Elizabeth G. (2008). Civil contempt and the 		
	Dialog=0
	
indigent child support obligor: The silent return 		
	
of debtor’s prison. Cornell Journal of Law and Public 		
32.	 Pretrial Justice Institute (2017). Pretrial Justice:
	
Policy, 18(1), 95-141.
	
How much does it cost?

the impact of incarceration on families in america | endnotes

52

42.	
	
	
	
	

Saneta deVuono-powell, Chris Schweidler, Alicia
Walters, and Azadeh Zohrabi. Who Pays? The True
Cost 	of Incarceration on Families. Oakland, CA:
Ella Baker Center, Forward Together, Research Action 		
Design, 2015.

43.	Ibid.
44.	 The Pew Charitable Trusts, 2010. Collateral Costs: 		
	
Incarceration’s Effect on Economic Mobility.
	
Washington DC: The Pew Charitable Trusts. Retrieved
	
from: https://www.pewtrusts.org/~/media/legacy/
	uploadedfiles/pcs_assets/2010/collateralcosts1pdf.pdf.
45.	
	
	
	

Wildeman, Christopher. 2010. “Paternal Incarceration 		
and Children’s Physically Aggressive Behaviors:
Evidence from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing 		
Study.” Social Forces 89:285-310.

46.	
	
	
	

Geller Amanda, Irwin Garfinkel, Carey Cooper, and
Ronald Mincy 2009. Parental incarceration and
childhood wellbeing: Implications for urban families. 		
Social Science Quarterly 90:1186-202.

47.	
	
	
	

Geller, Amanda, Carey E. Cooper, Irwin Garfinkel, Ofira 		
Schwartz-Soicher, and Ronald B. Mincy. 2012. Beyond 		
Absenteeism: father incarceration and child development 	
Demography 49 (1): 49-76.

48.	Ibid.
49.	
	
	
	

Haskins Anna R. 2014. Unintended Consequences:
Effects of paternal incarceration on school
readines and later special education placement.
Sociological Science 1:141-58.

50.	 Turney, Kristin, and Anna R. Haskins 2014. Falling
	
behind? Children’s early grade retention after paternal 		
	
incarceration. Sociology of Education 87(4):241-58.
51.	 Wildeman, Christopher, Alyssa Goldman, and Kristin 		
	
Turney. 2018. “Parental Incarceration and Child
	
Health in the United States.” Epidemiologic Reviews
	40:146-156.
52.	
	
	
	

Wildeman, Christopher, Alyssa Goldman, and Hedwig 		
Lee. “Health Consequences of Family Member
Incarceration for Adults in the Household.” Public
Health Reports (Forthcoming).

53.	
	
	
	

Green, K.M., Ensminger, M.E., Robertson, J.A., Juon, 		
H. 2006. “The Impact of Adult Sons’ Incarceration 		
on African American Mothers’ Psychological Distress’ 		
Journal of Marriage and Family 68: 430-41.

54.	
	
	
	

Turney, K., Schnittker, J., Wildeman, C. 2012. Those
They Leave Behind: Paternal Incarceration and
Maternal Instrumental Support. Journal of Marriage
and Family 74:1149-65.

55.	
	
	
	

Lee, Hedwig and Christopher Wildeman. 2013.
Things fall apart: Health consequences of mass
imprisonment for African American women.
Review of Black Political Economy 40:39-52.

56.
	
	
	
	

Lee, Hedwig, Christopher Wildeman, Emily A. Wang, 		
Niki Matusko, and James S. Jackson. 2014. A heavy 		
burden: The cardiovascular health consequences 		
of having a family member incarcerated. American
Journal of Public Health 104 (3): 421-27.

57.
	
	
	

Green, K.M., Ensminger, M.E., Robertson, J.A., Juon
H. 2006. “The Impact of Adult Sons’ Incarceration
on African American Mothers’ Psychological Distress’ 		
Journal of Marriage and Family 68: 430-41.

58. Lee, R., Fang, X. & Luo, F. 2013. The impact of parental 		
	
incarceration on the physical and mental health of young 	
	
adults. Pediatrics 131(4):88-95.
59.
	
	
	

Turney, K. 2014. Stress proliferation across generations? 		
Examining the relationship between parental
incarceration and childhood health. Journal of Health 		
and Social Behavior 44(30):302-319.

60. Wildeman, C., Andersen, S.H., Lee, H. & Karlson, K.B. 		
	
2014. Parental incarceration and child mortality in 		
	
Denmark. American Journal of Public Health 104(3):
	428-433.
61. Sack, W.H., Seidler, J., and Thomas, S. 1976. The 		
	
children of imprisoned parents: A psychosocial
	
exploration. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry 		
	46(4):618-28.
62. Fritsch, T.A., Burkhead, J.D. 1981. Behavioral reactions 		
	
of children to parental absence due to imprisonment. 		
	
Family Relations 30(1):83-88.
63.
	
	
	

Gabel, S. 1992. Children of incarcerated and criminal 		
parents: Adjustment, behavior, and prognosis. Bulletin
of the American Academy of Psychiatry & the Law
20(1): 33-45.

64. Murray, Joseph and David Farrington. 2008. “The Effects 		
	
of Parental Imprisonment on Children.” Crime and 		
	
Justice 37:133-206.
65.
	
	
	
	
	

Ranapurwala, Shabbar I., Meghan E. Shanahan,
Apostolos A. Alexandridis, Scott K. Proescholdbell, 		
Rebecca B. Naumann, Daniel Edwards Jr., and
Stephen W. Marshall. 2018. “Opioid Overdose Mortality 		
Among Former North Carolina Inmates: 2000-2015. 		
American Journal of Public Health 108(9): 1207-1213.

the impact of incarceration on families in america | endnotes

53

66.
	
	
	
	
	

Bronson, J., Zimmer, S. and Berzofsky, M. 2017. Drug 		
Use, Dependence, and Abuse Among State
Prisoners and Jail Inmates, 2007-2009. Washington
DC: Bureau of Justice Statistics. Available at
https://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/dudaspji0709.pdf 	
[Accessed 1 Nov. 2018]

67.
	
	
	
	

McVay, Doug, Vincent Schiraldi, and Jason
Ziedenberrg. 2004. “Treatment or Incarceration?
National and State Findings on the Efficacy and
Cost Savings of Drug Treatment Versus Imprisonment.” 		
Justice Policy Institute. Washington, D.C.

68.
	
	
	

Zarkin, Gary A. Alexander J. Cowell, Katherine A. Hicks.
2012. “Lifetime Benefits and Costs of Diverting
Substance-Abusing Offenders from State Prison. Crime 		
and Delinquency 61(6): 829-850.

	
	

Department of Justice, Washington, DC. Available online 	
at http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/pub/pdf/iptc.pdf.

76. Bonczar, Thomas P., Timothy A. Hughes, Doris James 		
	
Wilson, and Paula M. Ditton. 2011. “National Corrections 	
	
Reporting Program: Time Served In State Prison, By 		
	
Offense, Release Type, Sex, and Race” Bureau of Justice 		
	
Statistics, U.S. Department of Justice, Washington,
	
DC. Available online at https://www.bjs.gov/index.		
	cfm?ty=pbdetail&iid=2045.
77. Shanahan, Ryan and Sandra Villalobos Agudelo. 2012. 		
	
“The Family and Recidivism.” Vera Institute. Available at: 		
	https://www.prisonpolicy.org/scans/vera/the-family	and-recidivism.pdf.
78. Ibid.

69. La Vigne, Nancy G. 2014. The cost of keeping prisoners 		
	
hundreds of miles from home. [online]
	
Urban Institute. Available at: https://www.urban.org/		
	 urban-wire/cost-keeping-prisoners-hundreds-miles-		
	
home. [Accessed 1 Nov. 2018]

79. Leigh, Courtney, Sarah Eppler-Epstein, Elizabeth
	
Pelletier, Ryan King, and Serena Lei. 2017. A Matter of 		
	
Time: The Causes and Consequences of Rising Time
	
Served in America’s Prisons. The Urban Institute 		
	
Accessed at: https://apps.urban.org/features/long	prison-terms/trends.html.

70. Davis A. 1992. Men’s imprisonment: the financial cost 		
	
to women and children. In Prisoners’ Children: What are 		
	
the Issues? Ed. R Shaw, pp. 74-85. London: Routledge.

80. Ibid.

71.
	
	
	
	

Williams, T. 2015. The High Cost of Calling the
Imprisoned. The New York Times. [online]
Available at: https://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/31/us/		
steep-costs-of-inmate-phone-calls-are-under-scrutiny.		
html [Accessed 1 Nov. 2018].

72. Ibid.
73.
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	
	

Lopoo, Leonard M., and Bruce Western. 2005.
Incarceration and stability of marital unions. Journal of 		
Marriage and Family 67:721-34; Massoglia, Michael, 		
Brianna Remster, and Ryan D. King. 2014: Stigma 		
or separation? Understanding the incarceration-divorce 		
relationship. Social Forces 90:133-56; Western, Bruce, 		
Leonard M. Lopoo, and Sara McLanahan. 2004.
Incarceration and the bonds among parents in fragile 		
families. In Imprisoning America: The social effects 		
of mass incarceration, eds. Mary Patillo, David F.
Weiman, and Bruce Western, 21-45. New York, NY:
Russell Sage Foundation; Huebner, Beth M. 2005.
The effect of incarceration on marriage and work over
the life course. Justice Quarterly 22:281-303.

81. Cullen, F.T., Jonson, C.L., & Nagin, D.S. (2011). 	
	
Prisons Do Not Reduce Recidivism: The High Cost 		
	
of Ignoring Science. The Prison Journal 91
	
(3_suppl): 48S-65S. Available at: http://journals.
	sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0032885511415224.
82. Stemen, Don. 2017. The Prison Paradox: More
	
Incarceration will not Make Us Safer. Vera Institute of 		
	
Justice. Available at:: https://storage.googleapis.com/
	vera-web-assets/downloads/Publications/for-the	record-prison-paradox-incarceration-not-safer/
	legacy_downloads/for-the-record-prison-paradox_
	
02.pdf.

74. Swann, Christopher A. and Michelle Sheran Sylvester. 		
	
2006. The foster care crisis: What caused caseloads
	
to grow. Demography 43(2): 309-335.
75. Mumola, C.J. 2000. “Incarcerated Parents and Their
	
Children.” Report. Bureau of Justice Statistics, U.S. 		

the impact of incarceration on families in america | endnotes

54