Half of US adults have family member who has been incarcerated

WASHINGTON: Nearly half of all American adults have an immediate family member who has experienced incarceration, according to a new study published Thursday that spotlights the extent of mass imprisonment in the United States. The report comes as President Donald Trump has given his backing to a bipartisan bill aimed at reforming sentences imposed for drug offenses, a move that could begin to reduce the prison population after years of spiraling growth. The study by Cornell University and lobbying group FWD.us found that approximately 45 percent of American adults (around 113 million people) have an immediate family member who has been incarcerated for at least one night in jail or prison. It was based on online and phone surveys conducted on a nationally representative sample of 4,041 adults in the summer of 2018.