U.S. Prison System: Hidden Prison Costs Becoming Unbearable For Women Of Color In The U.S.

A new study by the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights (EBCH), has revealed that hidden prison costs in the United States of America have become too expensive. Ultimately, these hidden costs are badly affecting women of color.

The California-based racial and economic justice advocacy organization, has said that despite the U.S. spending more than $80 billion every year on the prison and jail systems, it is not enough to cover certain hidden costs.

EBCH said the hidden costs are primarily from the spending made by families who have loved one currently behind bars. These costs include legal fees, travel costs associated with visits to often remote prisons, expensive phone calls and other additional underlying costs. The study said these hidden costs are financially crippling families.

It was also discovered that women, especially women of color, bear the brunt of the negative financial and emotional effects of a loved one’s incarceration, according to statistics EBCH released.

The Take Part said the researchers surveyed more than 1,000 people from communities across 14 states; these people were either formerly incarcerated or had an incarcerated family member.

Almost one in every four women in the U.S. is related to someone in prison or jail, but as many as two of every five black women are related to someone in prison. This means women of color disproportionately bear the brunt of these costs.

Generally, the study said nearly 65 percent of families with an incarcerated loved one struggled to meet their family’s basic food and housing needs. In addition, 70 percent of those families included children under the age of 18.

Also, apart from the crippling hidden costs, the study also found that the stigma and trauma associated with having a family member behind bars has caused half of the family member surveyed to suffer from negative health effects. In 63 percent of the cases, family members outside prison were primarily responsible for court-related costs associated with a loved one’s conviction—83 percent of which were women.

It was also revealed that traveling costs and phone calls for families either visiting or contacting a loved one in prison, sent many of the families surveyed into debt. Some families told the researchers that they have fallen out of touch with their incarcerated loved ones, because the cost of keeping in contact was too much.

Shamika Wilson, of Redwood City, California, told the researches how her husband’s almost 30 years in prison has affected her: “Often I feel alone and incomplete, living inside of two separate worlds. I go to visit my husband in an unwelcoming environment, where I too am treated like an inmate. I return home to more than $45,000 worth of college loans, court fees, and seemingly unnecessary fines, on top of rent to pay, children to support, and classwork to complete.”

The study also touched on after prison life. It said rebuilding a life after serving a prison sentence is challenging for the majority of the 700 former prisoners that were surveyed. Five years after their release, 67 percent of the formerly incarcerated people surveyed were either unemployed or underemployed due to their criminal record. It further added, that one in four of the formerly incarcerated respondents was denied or barred from taking out school loans because of the conviction.

Activists have said the country needs to make serious reforms in the prison system in order to relieve these suffering  families. Currently, around 2.4 million people in the United States are locked up, many of which are serving long sentences for minor crimes.

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