U.S. Hits Record for Incarcerated, Paroled -- At What Cost?

Nov. 30, 2006 — -- According to a new Justice Department report, 7 million men and women, or 3 percent of the U.S population, are currently incarcerated, on probation or on parole -- a new record that makes the United States the world leader in incarceration.

Aside from the huge financial cost of having so many people behind bars -- it costs more than $20,000 per year for every incarcerated prisoner -- experts say there are serious societal concerns that can have a lasting impact on American communities.

"Almost every major American city has some area or neighborhood where there are concentrations of 15 to 25 percent of the men being locked up at some time in the last few years," said Todd Clear, a professor with the John Jay School of Criminal Justice in New York.

Criminologists say released prisoners face a number of social issues assimilating back into society -- problems can involve finding work, decreased earnings, finding housing, increased divorce rates, school performance issues for children of those incarcerated, juvenile justice problems and health or addiction problems.

"As you add up these little effects, it has a big affect socially," Clear said.

The rate of incarceration for minorities is especially high. According to the criminologists, the incarceration rate for African-American males is eight times higher than that of white males. A 2005 Justice Department report found that 60 percent of state and federal inmates were black or Hispanic.

That racial disparity can have a big influence on the U.S. political process. Many states have laws that forbid convicted felons from voting, or mandate a period of years after release from incarceration before reinstating voting rights.

In Kentucky, for example, almost 25 percent of African-American males in the state are barred from voting because of criminal records. According to the Kentucky League of Women Voters, Kentucky, Florida and Virginia permanently bar all individuals with felony convictions from voting.

Groups like the Sentencing Project, a non-profit organization that promotes reduced reliance on incarceration, and the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund advocate reinstating voting rights to those with criminal records.