The incarceration crisis extends far beyond prison and jail walls. Families with incarcerated loved ones face lost income, housing instability, and expenses that prevent them from climbing the economic ladder. Each year, those families lose or spend almost $350 billion combined for childcare, travel expenses, communications, and other costs, including supplemental food from prison commissaries.
Not surprisingly, the economic burden falls more heavily on families of color. Young adults with parents or siblings in prison mortgage their futures, while seniors with children in prison spend what little they may have out of fixed incomes.
Children are frequently harmed by having to move (or even becoming unhoused), experiencing their families broken apart, or facing harmful or discriminatory treatment by teachers or others based on the actions of a parent.
Based in Oakland, California, Rose spearheaded reasearch behind FWD.us’ report We Can’t Afford It: Mass Incarceration and the Family Tax.
She talked not only about what drives these many costs and on whom they fall, but also how to mitigate them. In particular, she looked at various steps our neighbor state Illinois recently took to reduce its prison population significantly.
Rose’s suggestions included amending Wisconsin’s “Truth-in-Sentencing” laws to return to earned good-time credits in prisons, narrowing sentence enhancements that force people into harmful plea deals, and creating ways to get people who are successful off of probation faster.
Transparency about the enormous costs of the carceral system also may help. She pointed to one jurisdiction where prosecutors are required to inform a sentencing judge about how much a requested sentence will cost the state.
Attendees networked and chatted during a cocktail hour, followed by Rose’s thought-provoking presentation and an informative question-and-answer session. The event was held in Blue Ribbon Hall at Best Place, at the Historic Pabst Brewery in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
If you missed the event or want to watch Rose’s presentation again, click on the YouTube video link below. We apologize that the lighting in the video is not the best (we’re not professional videographers). The content is excellent, though!
To better see the PowerPoint slides from the event, click here.
FWD.us’ report is available here.
Please share the video with those in the courts, other portions of the carceral system, Legislature, and local government whose actions impact the rates of incarceration in Wisconsin. Please share this video with concerned citizens who can use their voices to call for change and families members of those in custody. And please share this video with family members who support those in prison and their children.
