From the Brennan Center for Justice report Conviction, Imprisonment, and Lost Earnings:
Specifically, this report finds the following:
Conviction and imprisonment affect more people, in more serious ways, than was previously realized. Using data through 2017, this report concludes that about 7.7 million living Americans have at some point been imprisoned, about 12.1 million have been convicted of a felony without being imprisoned for it, and about 45 million have been convicted of at least one misdemeanor. (Due to data limitations, some overlap may exist between these categories.)
Conviction and imprisonment experienced early in life lower individuals’ annual earnings. People who have spent time in prison suffer the greatest losses, with their subsequent annual earnings reduced by an average of 52 percent.
People convicted of a felony but not imprisoned for it see their annual earnings reduced by an average of 22 percent.
People convicted of a misdemeanor see their annual earnings reduced by an average of 16 percent.
These earnings losses entrench poverty. The reduced earnings compound over the course of a lifetime. On average, formerly imprisoned people earn nearly half a million dollars less over their careers than they might have otherwise. These losses are borne disproportionately by people already living in poverty, and they help perpetuate it.
Read the full report here.
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