Mat 133 Milestone One:Two:Three
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James Sena
Mat 133 What is the financial cost of incarceration?
February 10, 2022
Hundreds of thousands of people are incarcerated every year, for everything from minor infractions to felonies, depending on a multitude of factors. These factors can include everything from prior history, the state they are in, the judge and the severity of their crime. While it is very important to get crime off the streets and make sure that the offenders are punished for what they
did, many people fail to look at one of the main issues that stem from a criminal conviction- the financial burden. For this reason, I have decided to look at the financial cost of a criminal conviction and spending time in jail as the topic for my research project. Primarily: What are the financial burdens of a criminal conviction on the offender? When it comes to criminals who have
been paroled, or have been released from the prison system, there are a number of legal financial obligations that are required of them, many times as terms of their parole. “
Increased economic responsibilities result from many stages of the judicial process and include fines, restitution, supervision fees, and accrued child support.” (Pleggenkuhle) This means that the offender is responsible for legal fees, paying money back to their victims, paying for housing (if needed), paying the child support they were not able to pay while incarcerated, treatment programs, polygraphs (for sex offenders) etc. Along with these legal obligations, there are many other financial burdens that effect ex-inmates. Many employers will not employ people with a prior felony conviction, meaning that it may be incredibly hard
for them to find a job that will support them and their families. If they are looking to rent a place to live, many landlords and rental companies require background checks, which can also hinder a convicted felons chances of getting approved. Having not had a job while incarcerated also leaves them with little to no savings, meaning that their chances of restarting life on a positive note can be difficult, especially if they had lost housing, jobs, vehicles and family support while in prison.
For the study I chose, the population being studied is in Missouri. “This research employed a purposive sample and derived from a population of officially sanctioned offenders under correctional supervision…The sample was comprised of persons who had scheduled report days or time in their prison schedule, but who fit our sample criteria of having experienced a recent release from prison or conviction and remained under correctional supervision.” (Pleggenkuhle) The sample consisted
of 131 individuals who had been convicted of a felony, although the nature of those felonies varied. The average age of the individuals was 38 years old. Three quarters of them were on supervised parole. Two thirds of the individuals were white and the average length of incarceration was 5.5 years. Over half of the individuals had graduated from high school, although less than 50% of them were employed at the time of their convictions. The two research questions proposed in the study are as follows: Research Question 1: What is the scope and totality of LFOs for a sample of ex-
offenders in a Midwest state? Research Question 2: How do LFOs impact structural, social,
and emotional experiences post-conviction? While they did not give solid hypothesis’ for their questions, the author did explain the importance of these questions, as they help address some of the problems expected to arise with this study, which is stated in the authors words as “
The growing body of literature examining LFOs have important implications, yet much remains to be learned. Due to the variation in imposition of LFOs, by state, county, and jurisdiction, large-scale evaluations of imposition and scope remain difficult. Further, many studies have focused primarily on immediate and material outcomes of LFOs, many of which look at recidivism and fail to include other outcomes such as emotive states or relation to identity.”
The research methods used in the study regarding the financial cost of incarceration were fairly straightforward. The hypothesis for the study was that, due to the many costs associated
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with incarceration (not only the financial costs that come with lawyers), people who are released from prison have a very difficult time getting back on their feet and reintegrating into life after prison. Because of this, they are unable to restart their lives on a positive note and many of them fall back into the actions that led them to prison in the first place. To test their hypothesis, researchers interviewed 131 felony offenders from a prison system in Missouri who’d crimes ranged from sexual assault, gun and drug charges and personal property charges. They received their data by conducting in-depth interviews with these felons over a time period of 8 months, throughout seven different facilities (which included probation and parole offices, the prison, a community center and a housing facility). Supervising agents facilitated the recruitment of the sample
. “
During the client meeting, they provided a short explanation of the research project and invited the individual to participate in the study at the completion of the appointment.
We were unable to have direct contact with potential participants and only interacted with them after initial interest in participating. As a result, we do not have a specific rate of refusal, though most who were asked appeared enthusiastic about participation, and few were noted to have declined.” (Pleggenkuhle) According to the article, the interviews were semi-structured so that the interviewer knew what they were going to talk about, but allowed
a lot of room for the interviewer to delve deeper into certain questions and answers, so they were able to get solid answers from the interviewees. It also states that a majority of the questions were based on the interviewee’s reintegration into life after prison and spoke a lot about housing, employment, family life, childcare, etc. The interviews lasted roughly an hour
and they were recorded and transcribed. “Much of the assessment of LFOs is dependent on self-reporting during the interviews, such as child support arrearage and post-conviction costs…
Numerical data were derived from close-ended questions in the interview, which were coded and compiled into a database. This allowed for the exploratory description of the degree of LFOs present in the sample, conceptualized in several ways to provide a comprehensive overview to answer Research Question 1.
To examine Research Question 2, interview transcripts were imported into the software program NVivo for qualitative analyses.
” (Pleggenkuhle)
When looking at the outcomes of the tests, it was shown that the results varied greatly. This was due to many different things, such as timing, the amount of the payments these men were required to make and the fact that it is hard to put a price on some of the other financial stresses that those being released from prison incur. It was proven that most of the men had some form of sentencing costs, whether it be lawyer fees or restitution that they were ordered to pay. A large number of them also had costs associated with parole and other methods of post-release supervision, such as rehab, treatment programs, halfway houses, etc. As it was shown in one of the tables in the study, there are a wide range of things that can contribute to the financial burden imposed on those who have just been released from prison. While some of these can be measured with a number, some of them cannot. These things include continuing poverty (meaning that they had financial issues before going to prison, which were exacerbated by their time
incarcerated, and are now making them start out their release on the wrong foot), missed opportunities (because of their felony charges, they can have a
hard time securing employment, a place to live, transportation, etc.), negative emotive state (their time in prison has made them feel less than and is wreacking havoc on their mental states and self confidence), independence (because of the earlier mentioned things, they are not able to provide for themselves or their families and have to rely on the help of others to get these things done) and identity change (their negative emotive state, along with their prison stay, makes them feel like different people and they don’t know how to navigate those feelings). The study showed that the hypothesis of the researchers was correct, in that most ex-felons being released from prison feel the strain of LFOs and have a harder time reintegrating into society because of this. I do think that the conclusions drawn by the researchers are valid, based
on the study and the results. There is sufficient data taken from the group that was polled, but I do think that a larger sample would give them even more solid results. They did extensive research with the interviews and looking into the financial strains of the inmates, but as it was stated in the study, many of the numbers were self-reported by those individuals, which does leave some room for error- they could have forgotten numbers, added wrong, misheard or misreported numbers. I think in order to make this a bit more solid, they would need a better way to get the numbers, although that delves into other issues regarding attaining them. They also didn’t poll any
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women, which I feel like could significantly change the outcomes of their study. Based on the research, though, I do think that those being released from prison are being reintegrated into society with failure already looming, not only due to the financial costs associated with a prison sentence, but because of the other issues that they face, such as not being able to secure employment, housing or transportation. While reading through this study, I was surprised by how much the incarnated are set up for failure when they are being reintegrated into society after their time in prison. Although I know it is not a responsibility of the criminal justice system to make sure these men and women are able to start over on the right foot, I do think that there should be some type of program in place to help them, if not only for the fact that helping them may keep them out of prison in the future, thus helping to combat many of the issues that currently plague prisons in the US, such as overcrowding and budget issues. It is clear from the results of the study that many of the men interviewed were leaving prison with a fair amount of debt, whether it be court or lawyer fees, housing fees or restitution. Along with this, they are having a hard time finding employment, transportation and a place to live because of their record. “The additional financial demands associated with a criminal conviction often further destabilized the already precarious economic state of many of the respondents, particularly those under parole supervision.
Most of the participants acknowledged general financial distress,
which LFOs further conditioned. Although LFOs were not the singular cause
of economic decline, they often furthered financial disadvantage, hindered employment and housing prospects, and reduced opportunities for positive social change.” (Pleggenkuhle) It seems as though one of the biggest concerns of the interviewed men are how they are going to make things work
while they are living paycheck to paycheck, not being able to make ends meet. They are having to pick up side jobs and pick and choose what they are going to pay on time, often falling behind on many of their required payments. I do believe that, for the most part, the study had the parts of a well-
designed experiment, although I do think that there are things that could have been improved on. The research questions were well thought out and explained, and the hypothesis was stated. The research that was done was correctly done and gave us a fair representation of the group that was selected. The sample group, though, is where I think the study could have been better performed. The interviews were done with a group of men only, from the prison system in only one state (Missouri). Although the study was based on the Midwest, I think that they lost out on a wide range of data by not including other Midwest states. I also think that they should have interviewed women. Although a majority of felony criminals are men, there are women incarcerated for felonies as well, and leaving them out of the study hides information that may change the outcome of the study.
With that being said, there are a few questions that I do still have that the study did not answer. The main question that I have is: What is the difference in LFOs between men and women? Other questions include: Do both sexes come out of prison with the same ones, or do they differ based on
gender? Which sex has a better success rate after reintegrating back into society? Do women tend to have an easier time getting housing, transportation and a job after prison, or do they have the same issues that men do? What does this process look like in other states? I would like to see the results for the same study done in other states across the country, as the
reintegration process is so different in other states.
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References
Pleggenkuhle, B. (2018) The Financial Cost Of A Criminal Conviction. Criminal
Justice and Behavior.
https://journals-sagepub-
com.ezproxy.snhu.edu/doi/pdf/10.1177/0093854817734278