Mass Incarceration 

• Children’s Indirect Exposure to the U.S. Justice System — Mike Mueller-Smith, Keith Finlay & Brittany Street. Forthcoming at The Quarterly Journal of Economics – Research

This research purports to quantify the children’s indirect exposure to the criminal legal system through biological parents or other adults living in the family home relates to their own vulnerability and to measure the expansive reach of the criminal legal systems in society. 

• Breaking Down the Walls –Youth First (2017) – Policy Report

This report reviews Youth First initiatives in six jurisdictions to eliminate juvenile prisons: California, District of Columbia, New York, Louisiana, and Mississippi. To accelerate the efforts to end harmful and inequitable youth incarceration, and to build on the work of the youth, families, and advocates who have fought successfully to close youth facilities, the Youth First Initiative looked at six successful campaigns, gathering lessons learned and strategies for success.

• Collateral Costs: Incarceration’s Effect on Economic Mobility – Pew (2010) – Research

Incarceration affects an inmate’s path to prosperity. Collateral Costs quantifies the size of that effect, not only on offenders but on their families and children. Before being incarcerated more than two-thirds of male inmates were employed and more than half were the primary source of financial support for their children. Incarceration carries significant and enduring economic repercussions for the remainder of the person’s working years. This report finds that former inmates work fewer weeks each year, earn less money and have limited upward mobility. These costs are borne by offenders’ families and communities, and they reverberate across generations.