![]() ![]() Black and Hispanic households with a currently or previously incarcerated family member experience greater financial insecurity than white households affected by incarceration.Statistical models of the correlates of household wealth attribute about 20 percent of the captured difference between Black and white households and 40 percent of the gap between Hispanic and white households to criminal justice system interactions. A substantial share of the racial wealth gap can be attributed to larger shares of Black and Hispanic households having an incarcerated family member.The respective share for their white counterparts was 55.3 percent. (All these numbers are exclusive of imputed defined-benefit pension wealth.) Similarly, in 2019, 70.8 percent of Black households and 66.5 percent of Hispanic households with an incarcerated family member had assets-financial and nonfinancial investments-of less than $50,000. ![]() In comparison, white households with an incarcerated family member had $15,330 in median wealth. For example, in 2019, Black households with an incarcerated family member had a median wealth of $1,101, and similarly situated Hispanic households had a median wealth of $3,200. Black and Hispanic households affected by incarceration have a fraction of the wealth of white households affected by incarceration.Key findings from this report, further detailed in the tables and figures throughout, include: Further compounding this troubling trend, families of color affected by incarceration face more significant negative economic consequences than white families affected by incarceration. In addition, this report shows that incarceration correlates with and exacerbates the persistent U.S. For instance, 23.4 percent of households with a currently or previously incarcerated family member were denied a loan application in 2019, while 11.2 percent of households unaffected by incarceration were denied a loan. Households affected by incarceration have fewer chances for longer-term wealth building.For example, 22.6 percent of households with a currently or previously incarcerated family member could not afford to pay all their bills in 2019, while the same was true for 14.5 percent of households unaffected by incarceration. Financial insecurity is significantly more widespread among households affected by incarceration.For example, 21.5 percent of households with a currently or previously incarcerated family member had legal debt in 2019, compared with only 2.1 percent of households without an incarcerated family member. Households with criminal legal system interactions face more obstacles to saving and end up deeper in debt.Households with a currently or previously incarcerated family member have about 50 percent less wealth than households not affected by incarceration, on average.Several of the key findings in this report document a link between criminal justice interactions and household wealth: Moreover, given that America’s failed criminal legal policies disproportionately harm Black and Hispanic individuals, families, and communities, this report also examines mass incarceration as an underappreciated driver of America’s racial wealth gap. This report seeks to add to the existing research literature 9 by highlighting the consequences of criminal legal system involvement for household wealth. However, scant attention has been paid to the effects of incarceration 8 on savings and ownership in the United States. 6 Research has also documented an alarming rise in fines, fees, and other criminal legal debts that can total thousands or even tens of thousands of dollars, diminishing families’ ability to save for the future and protect against financial shocks and uncertainty. 5 In one recent watershed analysis, researchers at the Brennan Center for Justice found that formerly incarcerated Americans see their subsequent earnings reduced by an average of 52 percent-and that, in the aggregate, Americans with criminal convictions face lost wages in excess of $372 billion every year. employers use background checks in hiring. 4 Appropriately, particular attention has been paid to the dramatic toll that a conviction and/or incarceration record takes on an individual’s employment and earnings prospects in an era when roughly 9 in 10 U.S. Over the past decade, a large and growing body of research has documented a host of negative, long-term economic consequences-often called collateral consequences-associated with interaction with the criminal legal system.
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