The Financial Toll of Incarceration for Individuals, Families, and Communities

Session Submission Type: Complete Thematic Panel

Abstract/Description

The cost of incarceration is often viewed as either the budgets of prisons and jails, or the cost of maintaining carceral infrastructure combined with a portion of spending on policing, courts, and other legal institutions. However, these calculations do not account for the profound economic impact of a prison sentence on those who are incarcerated, their loved ones, and the communities where they live. This panel presents new research on the financial repercussions of incarceration for people who are directly impacted and those around them, with a particular focus on the disparate and intersectional impact on women and people of color. The papers in this session use a combination of primary and secondary data collection to describe how time behind bars has significant and long-term economic impacts for people who are often already socially marginalized and financially vulnerable.

Sub Unit

• Area VI. The Criminal Justice System / 53. Collateral Consequences of Incarceration

Author

• Helen Wang, Georgetown University

Individual Presentations

• What Mass Incarceration Costs Black Women - Tasseli McKay, University of North Carolina School of Medicine

• How is the Financial Burden of Incarceration Distributed? - Jim Parsons, Vera Institute of Justice; Erika Feeney, University of Maryland

• Focus on the Family: Mass Incarceration and Gender Inequality - Sarah Riley, Vera Institute of Justice; Jessica Zhang, Vera Institute of Justice

• The Direct Financial Costs of Family Member Incarceration - Christopher Wildeman, Duke University

Discussant

• William (Bill) Sabol, Georgia State University