Chapter 2: Losing Time
Help protect American families and end the incarceration crisis. Together, we can move America forward.
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Help protect American families and end the incarceration crisis. Together, we can move America forward.
The time the incarceration crisis takes from America’s families can’t be replaced. Whether it’s one night or a lifetime, a missed holiday meal or a missed childhood, every family impacted by over-incarceration feels its negative effects.
Studies have shown that 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.
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 adults 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.
According to the Urban Institute, the amount of time that people are serving in prison has increased in every state since 2000. 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.
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. 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.
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.
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.
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.
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