Overview

• The FWD.us report draws on a national survey of more than 1,600 adults conducted with Duke University and the University of Chicago’s National Opinion Research Center.
• Families report losing about $1,803 in income per month when a loved one is incarcerated and spend an average of $4,200 annually on phone calls, travel, child care and commissary purchases.
• Black households shoulder disproportionately higher expenses—averaging $8,005 per incarcerated relative each year versus $3,251 for white families.
• One in five family members is forced to move due to incarceration, and 9 percent report experiencing homelessness, rising to 18 percent among children of incarcerated parents.
• Formerly incarcerated individuals and their children incur annual wage and earnings losses of roughly $111 billion and $215 billion, respectively, with cumulative family losses projected to reach $3.5 trillion over the next decade if incarceration rates remain unchanged.