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: The Real Cost of Prisons Weblog

Huge Growth in People With Criminal Records creates $57-$65 Billion in Lost Output a Year

By Real Cost of Prisons Project (The Sentencing Project)

Growth of Ex-Offender Population in United States Is a Dramatic Drag on Economy Three decades of harsh criminal justice policies have created a large population of ex-offenders that struggle in the labor market long after they have paid their debts to society, according to a new report from the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR). Because prison records and felony convictions greatly lower ex-offenders' chances of finding work, the United States loses between $57 billion and $65 billion a year in lost output. "It isn't just that we have the highest incarceration rate in the world, we have created a situation over the last 30 years where about one in eight men is an ex-offender," said John Schmitt, a Senior Economist at CEPR and a co-author of the report...continue to full post

Full post as published by The Real Cost of Prisons Weblog on November 16, 2010 (boomark / email).