It’s Holding Us All Back

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.

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

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.

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. 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. 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.

• 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.

• 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

• 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.

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

• 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

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. 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. 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.

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 boys and a wide range of negative education outcomes as early as the age of three. The behavioral effects are estimated to be stronger for children who lived with their fathers prior to incarceration and there is evidence that incarceration has a stronger effect on children’s education outcomes than other forms of paternal absence. A recent study found that paternal incarceration affects school readiness and increases the likelihood of placement in special education classes. 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.

• 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.

• 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. 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.

• 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.

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

• Turney, Kristin, and Anna R. Haskins 2014. Falling behind? Children’s early grade retention after paternal incarceration. Sociology of Education 87(4):241-58.

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. Many people also leave prison with even greater needs for substance use treatment, employment or housing support, or trauma recovery services.

These negative impacts are particularly common in mothers who have incarcerated sons and the children of incarcerated parents. Numerous studies have found a strong correlation between parental incarceration and depression, anxiety, and aggressiveness among children. 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.

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.

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 abuse. 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.

• 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.

• 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.

• 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.

• 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.

• 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.

• 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.

• 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.

• 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.

• 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.

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

• 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.

• 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

• 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/research/2023

• 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.

• 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.

Numerous studies have found that male incarceration is strongly correlated with a lower likelihood of marriage and higher rates of divorce and separation. 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. The Adoption and Safe Families Act (AFSA), a federal law in enacted in 1997, requires that states terminate parental rights if a child has been in foster care for 15 of the previous 22 months. 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.

These are not trivial matters. Maintaining strong family connections is one of the building blocks of safe and healthy communities. 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.

• 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.

• Swann, Christopher A. and Michelle Sheran Sylvester. 2006. The foster care crisis: What caused caseloads to grow. Demography 43(2): 309-335.

• 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.

• 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.

• 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.

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.

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.

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. Some states also charge “background check fees” for visitors of incarcerated family members.

• 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.

• 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.