Data Source: National Center for Education Statistics, U.S. Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIACC) 2014 Prison Study. (Graph: Emily Wildra, 2017)

This graph originally appeared in It’s not just the franchise: Mass incarceration undermines political engagement.

The findings of these three questions about social and political isolation reinforce the conclusions of prior research, suggesting that criminal justice involvement at any level impacts political engagement and trust. Compared to the data collected from U.S. households, the survey of U.S. prisons indicates higher levels of mistrust, political disenfranchisement, and political alienation among incarcerated adults.