Nearly half of all US adults have had an immediate family member incarcerated at some point in their lives, according to a new study.
Researchers also reported one in seven adults have seen immediate family incarcerated for over a year, with minorities most impacted.
The study by criminal justice non-profit FWD.us and Cornell University surveyed over 4,000 American adults.
Over 2 million Americans are currently in prison in the US.
The report estimates 64% of US adults have had someone in their family spend at least one night in jail or prison.
The study’s authors said it pointed to a nationwide “incarceration crisis”.
“These numbers are stunning, all the more so if you think of them not as numbers but as stories like mine,” Felicity Rose, FWD director said in a foreword to the report.
