Collateral Effects of Incarceration on the Economic Mobility of Ex-Offenders and their Families

With 2.3 million Americans behind bars and more than 2.7 million minor children with a parent incarcerated, it is imperative that policymakers understand the economic and social costs of incarceration for ex-offenders, their children and families, and communities.

A new report by The Pew Charitable Trust’s Economic Policy Group and the Pew Center on the States looks at the collateral costs of incarceration, most strikingly its effects on ex-offenders’ economic mobility. The report finds that incarceration reduces ex-offenders’ earnings by 40 percent and their time working by nine weeks annually. Such long-term earnings losses contribute to former inmates’ struggle to move from the bottom of the earnings distribution. Because more than half of all male inmates were the primary source of financial support for their children, according to the report, the economic consequences of incarceration significantly affect the economic security of ex-offenders’ children.

The report also highlights issues of racial equity regarding the collateral consequences of imprisonment, looking at the concentration of incarceration among African American men and its striking effects for their long-term economic success.

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