Kerry A. Ryan (St. Louis) presents Mothers in Jails: A Taxing Matter at Cumberland today as part of its Tax Policy Speaker Series hosted by Tracey Roberts:

This year, about 200,000 women will spend a day in prison or jail, separated from their families. Women are disproportionately confined in local jails, as opposed to state or federal prisons. A majority of women in jails have not been convicted of a crime and are awaiting trial, and most of these women are mothers (and most are single mothers). Many women, particularly primary caregivers, simply cannot afford bail so must await trial in jail. Even once convicted, women are more likely to be serving a sentence in jail rather than prison.

Prior literature detailed the devastating economic and personal consequences of incarceration on mothers. In addition, several recent articles detail the negative tax and social benefit effects of working while confined in state or federal prisons. This article contributes to both of those literatures by focusing on the unique tax issues faced by single mothers incarcerated in local jails, as opposed to state or federal prisons. This article will demonstrate that the short-term nature of most jail confinements and the existence of pre-trial detainees in the jail population impacts the availability of certain family-related tax benefits to detained (or previously detained) single mothers.

Further, when eligibility is unclear and Congress has not specifically excepted jailed mothers from accessing family tax allowances, this paper argues in favor of granting tax advantages to jailed (or previously jailed) single mothers when doing so furthers legitimate tax and societal objectives and does not conflict with carceral goals.

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