The High Budgetary Cost of Incarceration

John Schmitt and Kris Warner

CEPR Reports and Issue Briefs from Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR)

Abstract: We use Bureau of Justice Statistics data to estimate that, in 2008, the United States had between 12 and 14 million ex-offenders of working age. Because a prison record or felony conviction greatly lowers ex-offenders’ prospects in the labor market, we estimate that this large population lowered the total male employment rate that year by 1.5 to 1.7 percentage points. In GDP terms, these reductions in employment cost the U.S. economy between $57 and $65 billion in lost output.

Keywords: incarceration; ex-offenders; ex-felons; employment; labor; economics; prisoners (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: E H J J1 J2 J7 K K4 K42 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 24 pages
Date: 2010-11
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-mac
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (9)

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Related works:
Working Paper: The High Budgetary Cost of Incarceration (2010)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:epo:papers:2010-28

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