Mary Pattillo-McCoy, Chair

While law-and-order politicians trumpet the need for more money to build prisons, an upcoming conference at Northwestern will focus on the social costs of these hard-line policies.

The May 5 conference, sponsored by IPR and supported in part by the Russell Sage Foundation, will examine effects of the nation’s skyrocketing incarceration rates on the families and children of ex-felons and current inmates.

Since 1980 the U.S. incarceration rate has tripled, and approximately 2 million Americans are behind bars. Even more disturbing are Bureau of Justice statistics that show 55% of state prisoners and 63% of federal inmates have children under age 18, and that 7% of black children had a parent in prison in 1999.

The conference will bring together academics, practitioners, advocates, and activists to share empirical research, theories, and experiences in an effort to understand the costs and consequences of these high levels of imprisonment. Five IPR faculty, including conference chair Mary Pattillo-McCoy (African-American Studies/Sociology) will moderate panels that will explore the scope of the problem, the impact of both female and male incarceration on parenting, marriage, and families, and on their prospects for jobs and future earnings. The final panel will feature academics and practitioners in a roundtable discussion of what kind of policy and research agenda should be set for the future.

The conference was organized by IPR’s Program on Child, Adolescent, and Family Studies. Committee members Joseph Altonji (Economics), Greg Duncan (Education and Social Policy), Tom Cook (Sociology), Dorothy Roberts (Law), and Pattillo-McCoy will chair the panels. Other organizers were IPR Director Fay Lomax Cook and Lindsay Chase-Lansdale (Education and Social Policy).

A full schedule of speakers and the registration form are available online at www.northwestern.edu/IPR/events.