Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of I Heart Radio,
Speaker 1: Hey brain Stuff. Lauren vogelbam here if hot dogs, baseball,
Speaker 1: and apple pie are part of the quintessential American experience. Sadly,
Speaker 1: Matt's incarceration may not be far behind. A study published
Speaker 1: in Stage Journals in March of twenty nineteen showed that
Speaker 1: nearly half of all U s citizens have an immediate
Speaker 1: family member that is, a spouse, parents, sibling, or child
Speaker 1: who has been incarcerated for at least one night. The study,
Speaker 1: which was led by Cornell researchers, is the first ever
Speaker 1: to pinpoint the percentage of American families touched by the
Speaker 1: country's prison system. Researchers surveyed more than four thousand subjects
Speaker 1: who were representative of the country's makeup as a whole,
Speaker 1: to find out whether they had family members who had
Speaker 1: ever spent time in jail or prison. The study leaders
Speaker 1: thought that the number might hover around, but the real
Speaker 1: figures shocked them. But we spoke via email with Peter Ends,
Speaker 1: the lead study author. He said, we were very surprised
Speaker 1: that nearly one in two adults have had an immediate
Speaker 1: family members spend at least one night in jail or prison,
Speaker 1: that siblings were the most common immediate family member to
Speaker 1: have been incarcerated, and that even among the most educated,
Speaker 1: those with a bachelor's degree or more, almost one in
Speaker 1: three that's thirty percent, have had an immediate family member
Speaker 1: spend time in jail or prison. America has the world's
Speaker 1: highest incarceration rate, with more than two point two million
Speaker 1: people jailed or imprisoned akin to jailing the entire population
Speaker 1: of the city of Houston. College educated white people were
Speaker 1: the least likely to encounter this phenomenon. According to the study,
Speaker 1: just fifteen percent of them had a family member in
Speaker 1: jail or prison. On the flip side, about sixty percent
Speaker 1: of African Americans and people with lower levels of education
Speaker 1: had close experiences with the prison system. However, fifty percent
Speaker 1: of African Americans with college degrees still had a relative
Speaker 1: who had been jailed or imprisoned. Ends attributes the high
Speaker 1: percentage of Americans with incarcerated family members to a number
Speaker 1: of factors. The length of prison sentences handed out in
Speaker 1: the United States, the country's tendency to impose prison sentences
Speaker 1: rather than treatment. It's very rigid parole system that leads
Speaker 1: many to return to prison, often without the commission of
Speaker 1: new crimes, and the high level of pre trial incarceration.
Speaker 1: About twenty years ago, the majority of people arrested on
Speaker 1: even felony charges were released without posting bail, But since then,
Speaker 1: bail bonds have exploded into an industry where two billion
Speaker 1: dollars per year, and people who can't afford to pay
Speaker 1: can wind up spending long stints in local jails awaiting trial.
Speaker 1: You can listen to our episode Is There a Better
Speaker 1: Alternative to cash bail? From March for more on that subject.
Speaker 1: The authors of the current study hope that their research
Speaker 1: will remove some of the stigma of incarceration by showing
Speaker 1: how widespread it is, and said sentences were both non
Speaker 1: violent and violent crimes need to be reduced. We also
Speaker 1: need a correctional system that helps prepare those who are
Speaker 1: incarcerated return to society and supports these individuals when they're release.
Speaker 1: Today's episode was written by Nathan Chandler and produced by
Speaker 1: Tyler Clang. For more on this and lots of other topics,
Speaker 1: visit how stuff works dot com. Brain Stuff is a
Speaker 1: production of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts my heart Radio,
Speaker 1: visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you
Speaker 1: listen to your favorite shows.