The Historical Incarceration Penalty in the United States

The United States is a global outlier in terms of its prison population and incarceration rate today, but the country's reliance on incarceration in criminal justice dates back to the late 19th century. We assemble data on millions of inmates from full-count Censuses and administrative state prison records covering 1870-1940 --- the first wave of ``mass incarceration'' in the U.S. Following the socioeconomic characteristics of incarcerated vs. non-incarcerated young men over time, we document substantial penalties associated with past imprisonment, from income and labor market participation to marriage and social status. Neither family background nor labor market trajectories leading up to incarceration can fully explain labor market penalties associated with past imprisonment. Examining heterogeneity across individuals reveals that the penalty is largest among those with more to lose: white vs. non-white men, older vs. younger individuals, and those living outside vs. within the South. As the incarceration rate rose in the early 20th century, so, too, did the costs of imprisonment for young men.The United States is a global outlier in terms of its prison population and incarceration rate today, but the country's reliance on incarceration in criminal justice dates back to the late 19th century. We assemble data on millions of inmates from full-count Censuses and administrative state prison records covering 1870-1940 --- the first wave of ``mass incarceration'' in the U.S. Following the socioeconomic characteristics of incarcerated vs. non-incarcerated young men over time, we document substantial penalties associated with past imprisonment, from income and labor market participation to marriage and social status. Neither family background nor labor market trajectories leading up to incarceration can fully explain labor market penalties associated with past imprisonment. Examining heterogeneity across individuals reveals that the penalty is largest among those with more to lose: white vs. non-white men, older vs. younger individuals, and those living outside vs. within the South. As the incarceration rate rose in the early 20th century, so, too, did the costs of imprisonment for young men.

Web investigador: https://sites.google.com/view/ellora-derenoncourt/home

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