Mass Incarceration: At What Cost To Our Nation

Congressional hearings on incarceration in America.

The United States has experienced a sharp increase in its prison population in the past thirty years. From the 1920s to the mid-1970s, the incarceration rate in the United States remained steady at approximately 110 prisoners per 100,000 people. Today, the incarceration rate is 737 inmates per 100,000 residents, comprising 2.1 million persons in federal, state, and local prisons. The United States has 5 percent of the world’s population but now has 25 percent of its prisoners. There are approximately 5 million Americans under the supervision of the correctional system, including parole, probation, and other community supervision sanctions.

With such a significant number of the population behind bars, expenditures associated with the prison system have skyrocketed. According to the Urban Institute, “the social and economic costs to the nation are enormous.” With 2.25 million people incarcerated in approximately five thousand prisons and jails, the combined expenditures of local governments, state governments, and the federal government for law enforcement and corrections personnel totals over $200 billion.

Opening Statements:	Senator Schumer's Opening Statement
	Senator Webb's Opening Statement
	Representative Maloney's Opening Statement
Witnesses:	Dr. Glenn Loury, Economics and Social Sciences Professor, Brown University
	Dr. Bruce Western, Director Inequality and Social Policy Program, Harvard University
	Alphonso Albert, Executive Director, Second Chances
	Michael Jacobson, Executive Director, Vera Institute for Justice
	Pat Nolan, Vice President, Prison Fellowship, Reston, Virginia
Location:	216 Hart Senate Office Building
Time:	10:00am
Press Advisory:	Joint Economic Committee to Examine Economic Costs of Surge in U.S. Prison Population and Possible Solutions

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