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