In the News

The gathering at the Brown School last week advanced that idea with details from the 12 issue groups who made presentations and several panels of experts—some not social workers—who offered their perspectives on the endeavor and ideas that could broaden its appeal. 

The 12 Grand Challenges for Social Work as envisioned by the American Academy of Social Work and Social Welfare (AASWSW) has galvanized a significant number of social workers—not all, but mostly academics—around the notion that sustained focus on key issues relevant to creating and maintaining a just society for all people can be pushed in that direction with leadership from the social work profession.  

It's commonly said that mass incarceration costs the United States $80 billion a year. That figure is based on how much the country spends solely on prisons themselves (though even this accounting has been called into question). However, new research published in July by professors at Washington University argues that this number is misleading, and doesn't factor in many other costs brought about by mass incarceration, including those paid by the prisoners, their families, children, and the community at large. The actual fiscal cost of mass incarceration, the research claims, is more than $1 trillion. 

The cost of incarceration in the United States exceeds $1 trillion, or six percent of the gross domestic product, and dwarfs the amount spent on corrections alone, finds a new study from Washington University in St. Louis.

A new study examining the economic toll of mass incarceration in the United States concludes that the full cost exceeds $1 trillion ― with about half of that burden falling on the families, children and communities of people who have been locked up.

In recent years, the bipartisan push for criminal justice reform has been fueled in large part by the astronomical price tag that comes with mass incarceration. Locking people up in federal, state, and local correctional facilities cost the government a whopping $80 billion, and taxpayers end up footing the bill. But a Washington University study released in July projects that the price tag touted by advocates of reform is a mere fraction of the actual cost of mass incarceration.

The economic toll of incarceration in the U.S. tops $1 trillion, and more than half of that falls on the families and communities of the people incarcerated, according to a recent study by Washington University researchers.

National experts, advocates and leading academics will gather at Washington University in St. Louis Wednesday-Friday, Sept. 14-16, as part of a policy conference designed to hammer out constructive solutions to pressing social issues facing the country and the next administration.

The United States Justice Department will begin phasing out its use of private prisons this year – with an eye to ending the practice entirely. The move comes amid growing public and governmental concern that the facilities are less secure and less safe, for both inmates and guards.

The proposal issued Monday by US Attorney General Loretta Lynch may seem like small potatoes. But according to some criminal-justice experts, such a seemingly small change could have major impacts on the lives of the hundreds of thousands of felons who leave prison every year. It’s also a goal that may span partisan divides, potentially serving as a bridge toward further criminal-justice reforms.