Regulating California’s Prison Population

2016 ◽  
Vol 664 (1) ◽  
pp. 84-107 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Austin
Keyword(s):  
Driving Forces ◽  
Prison Population ◽  
Mass Incarceration ◽  
Federal Court ◽  
The United States ◽  
Court Order ◽  
Ballot Initiative ◽  
The Past ◽  
Penal Codes ◽  
Prison Populations

While many scholars and social commentators bemoan the rise of “mass incarceration” in the United States, few states have succeeded in significantly reducing prison populations. Fueled by systemic changes in penal codes, sentencing practices, and federal funding all designed to increase the use of imprisonment, most states have been unable to reverse the massive increase that has transpired over the past four decades. More alarming, there are few indications that mass incarceration will be reduced any time soon. There are a few exceptions, with California being one. Since 2007, California’s prison population has dropped by over 43,000 prisoners. Reductions have also been achieved in the state parole (82,000) and probation (15,000) populations. Today there are 146,000 fewer Californians in prison, jail, parole, or probation. Initially driven largely by a period of lengthy litigation, a rare federal court order to depopulate, several other reforms, reflecting a sticks and carrots approach, were introduced beginning in 2007 to lower imprisonment rates. Among them was “Realignment,” which relocated approximately 27,000 state prisoners to the counties. However, it required another stick in the form of a ballot initiative (Proposition 47) to further reduce the prison population and meet compliance with the federal court order. In the end, it was the externally imposed dual “sticks” of litigation and a ballot initiative that proved to be the driving forces in reducing California’s use of mass incarceration.

Greening the Gulag: Austerity, neoliberalism, and the making of the “green prisoner”

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
pp. 1120-1136
Author(s):  
B Jewell Bohlinger
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Prison Population ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Mass Incarceration ◽  
The United States ◽  
Effective Strategies ◽  
The Past ◽  
Cost Cutting ◽  
Important Challenge ◽  
The Impact

Over the past 30 years the U.S. prison population has exploded. With the impact of climate change already here, we are also seeing new critiques of mass incarceration emerge, namely their environmental impact. In response to these burgeoning critiques as well as calls to action by the Justice Department to implement more sustainable and cost-effective strategies in prisons, the United States is experiencing a surge in prison sustainability programs throughout the country. Although sustainability is an important challenge facing the world, this paper argues that while “greening” programs seem like attempts to reform current methods of imprisonment, sustainability programming is an extension of the neoliberalization of incarceration in the United States. By emphasizing cost cutting while individualizing rehabilitation, prisons mobilize sustainability programming to produce “green prisoners” who are willing to take responsibility for their rehabilitation and diminish their economically burdensome behaviors (i.e. excessive wastefulness). Using semi-structure journals and interviews at three Oregon prisons, this paper investigates these ideas through the lens of the Sustainability in Prisons Project.

Critical Junctures and Conditions of Change: Exploring the Fall of Prison Populations in US States

2018 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 58-80 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susanne Karstedt ◽  
Tiffany Bergin ◽  
Michael Koch
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Prison Population ◽  
Mass Incarceration ◽  
The United States ◽  
Transformative Change ◽  
Us States ◽  
State Prison ◽  
Critical Junctures ◽  
Penal Reform ◽  
Prison Populations

State prison populations in the United States have been regularly declining since 2009, and, at the end of 2014, the combined federal and state prison population was at its lowest level since 2005. Criminologists were caught by surprise by this development in the country that epitomized contemporary ‘mass incarceration’. Their theoretical accounts were steeped in a ‘punitive worldview’ that left no space for the stabilization and eventual decline in mass incarceration in the United States. This article focuses on policy processes, rather than structural conditions, as drivers of penal change. The article begins with an overview of theories of punishment and their shortcomings. The framework that guides our study is based on the concept of ‘critical junctures’, which are seedbeds of long-term transformative change that present opportunities and constraints for actors in the penal field. The empirical research presented here analyses the adoption of legal reforms aimed at reducing mass incarceration by the 50 US states. We find that a trifecta of conflicting actors – legal, political and public – accounts for the complex and sometimes contradictory ways in which states move towards penal reform.

Ending Mass Incarceration is a Moral Imperative

2014 ◽  
Vol 26 (4) ◽  
pp. 271-275 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan Simon
Keyword(s):  
Prison Population ◽  
Mass Incarceration ◽  
Moral Imperative ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Media ◽  
Prison Populations

The movement against mass incarceration has made major strides in the past few years with politicians and the media becoming significantly less enthralled with prisons and prison populations themselves are dropping modestly. However further progress, let alone a major effort to reverse the explosive growth of imprisonment over the last three decades, is by no means assured. Many of the factors that produced mass incarceration, including the structure of sentencing laws, prosecutorial attitudes, policing practices and court routines remains very much intact. This essay recommends five strategies to increase the chance that the present conjuncture leads to deep change and avoids the stabilization of the prison population into "mass incarceration lite."

The downside of downsizing: Persistence of racial disparities following state prison reform

2021 ◽  
pp. 146247452110060
Author(s):  
Amy E Lerman ◽  
Alyssa C Mooney
Keyword(s):  
Racial Disparities ◽  
Prison Population ◽  
Mass Incarceration ◽  
Prison Reform ◽  
State Prison ◽  
Probation And Parole ◽  
Substantial Progress ◽  
Prison Populations ◽  
Racial Ethnic ◽  
Double Digit

Nationwide, prison populations have declined nearly 5% from their peak, and 16 states have seen double-digit declines. It is unclear, though, how decarceration has affected racial disparities. Using national data, we find substantial variation in state prison populations from 2005–2018, with increases in some states and declines in others. However, although declines in the overall state prison population were associated with declines for all groups, states with rising prison populations experienced slight upticks in prison rates among the white population, while rates among Black and Latinx populations declined. As a result, greater progress in overall decarceration within states did not translate to larger reductions in racial disparities. At the same time, we do not find evidence that a decline in prison populations is associated with a rise in jail incarceration for any racial/ethnic group. In additional exploratory analyses, we suggest that recent incarceration trends may be driven by changes in returns to prison for probation and parole violations, rather than commitments for new crimes. Our results make clear that while efforts to reverse mass incarceration have reduced the size of prison populations in some states, they have not yet made substantial progress in resolving the crisis of race in American criminal justice.

On the Weak Mortality Returns of the Prison Boom: Comparing Infant Mortality and Homicide in the Incarceration Ledger

2017 ◽  
Vol 59 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-19 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael T. Light ◽  
Joey Marshall
Keyword(s):  
Infant Mortality ◽  
Instrumental Variable ◽  
Prison Population ◽  
State Level ◽  
Mass Incarceration ◽  
Homicide Rates ◽  
Infant Deaths ◽  
Instrumental Variable Estimation ◽  
The Past ◽  
Level Data

The justifications for the dramatic expansion of the prison population in recent decades have focused on public safety. Prior research on the efficacy of incarceration offers support for such claims, suggesting that increased incarceration saves lives by reducing the prevalence of homicide. We challenge this view by arguing that the effects of mass incarceration include collateral infant mortality consequences that call into question the number of lives saved through increased imprisonment. Using an instrumental variable estimation on state-level data from 1978 to 2010, this article simultaneously considers the effects of imprisonment on homicide and infant mortality to examine two of the countervailing mortality consequences of mass incarceration. Results suggest that while incarceration saves lives by lowering homicide rates, these gains are largely offset by the increases in infant mortality. Adjusted figures that count the number of increased infant deaths attributable to incarceration suggest that the mortality benefits of imprisonment over the past three decades are 82% lower than previously thought.

scholarly journals REMOTELY-SENSED URBAN WET-LANDSCAPES: AN INDICATOR OF COUPLED EFFECTS OF HUMAN IMPACT AND CLIMATE CHANGE

2016 ◽  
Vol XLI-B8 ◽  
pp. 915-918
Author(s):  
Wei Ji
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Human Impact ◽  
Kansas City ◽  
Urban Landscape ◽  
Driving Forces ◽  
The United States ◽  
Spatial Analyses ◽  
The Past ◽  
Precipitation Variation ◽  
Traditional Image

This study proposes the concept of urban wet-landscapes (loosely-defined wetlands) as against dry-landscapes (mainly impervious surfaces). The study is to examine whether the dynamics of urban wet-landscapes is a sensitive indicator of the coupled effects of the two major driving forces of urban landscape change – human built-up impact and climate (precipitation) variation. Using a series of satellite images, the study was conducted in the Kansas City metropolitan area of the United States. A rule-based classification algorithm was developed to identify fine-scale, hidden wetlands that could not be appropriately detected based on their spectral differentiability by a traditional image classification. The spatial analyses of wetland changes were implemented at the scales of metropolitan, watershed, and sub-watershed as well as based on the size of surface water bodies in order to reveal urban wetland change trends in relation to the driving forces. The study identified that wet-landscape dynamics varied in trend and magnitude from the metropolitan, watersheds, to sub-watersheds. The study also found that increased precipitation in the region in the past decades swelled larger wetlands in particular while smaller wetlands decreased mainly due to human development activities. These findings suggest that wet-landscapes, as against the dry-landscapes, can be a more effective indicator of the coupled effects of human impact and climate change.

scholarly journals Global and regional drivers of power plant CO2 emissions over the last three decades

2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xinying Qin ◽  
Dan Tong ◽  
Fei Liu ◽  
Ruili Wu ◽  
Bo Zheng ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Power Plant ◽  
Co2 Emissions ◽  
Power Plants ◽  
Fossil Fuel ◽  
Driving Forces ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Past ◽  
Power Plant Emissions ◽  
Plant Emissions

The past three decades have witnessed the dramatic expansion of global biomass- and fossil fuel-fired power plants, but the tremendously diverse power infrastructure shapes different spatial and temporal CO2 emission characteristics. Here, by combining Global Power plant Emissions Database (GPED v1.1) constructed in this study and the previously developed China coal-fired power Plant Emissions Database (CPED), we analyzed global and regional changes in generating capacities, age structure, and CO2 emissions by fuel type and unit size, and further identified the major driving forces of these global and regional structure and emission trends over the past 30 years. Accompanying the growth of fossil fuel- and biomass-burning installed capacity from 1,774 GW in 1990 to 4,139 GW in 2019 (a 133.3% increase), global CO2 emissions from the power sector relatively increased from 7.5 Gt to 13.9 Gt (an 85.3% increase) during the same period. However, diverse developments and transformations of regional power units in fuel types and structure characterized various regional trends of CO2 emissions. For example, in the United States and Europe, CO2 emissions from power plants peaked before 2005, driven by the utilization of advanced electricity technologies and the switches from coal to gas fuel at the early stage. It is estimated the share of identified low-efficiency coal power capacity decreased to 4.3% in the United States and 0.6% in Europe with respectively 2.1% and 13.2% thermal efficiency improvements from 1990-2019. In contrast, CO2 emissions in China, India, and the rest of world are still steadily increasing because the growing demand for electricity is mainly met by developing carbon-intensive but less effective coal power capacity. The index decomposition analysis (IDA) to identify the multi-stage driving forces on the trends of CO2 emissions further suggests different global and regional characteristics. Globally, the growth of demand mainly drives the increase of CO2 emissions for all stages (i.e. 1990-2000, 2000-2010 and 2010-2019). Regional results support the critical roles of thermal efficiency improvement (accounting for 20% of the decrease in CO2 emissions) and fossil fuel mix (61%) in preventing CO2 emission increases in the developed regions (e.g., the United States and Europe). The decrease of fossil fuel share gradually demonstrates its importance in carrying the positive effects on curbing emissions in the most of regions, including the developing economics (i.e. China and India) after 2010 (accounting for 46% of the decrease in CO2 emissions). Our results highlight the contributions of different driving forces to emissions have significantly changed over the past 30 years, and this comprehensive analysis indicates that the structure optimization and transformations of power plants is paramount importance to curb or further reduce CO2 emissions from the power sector in the future.

Prison School

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lizbet Simmons
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
Public Schools ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Justice System ◽  
Mass Incarceration ◽  
The United States ◽  
African American Boys ◽  
Socioeconomic Disparity ◽  
War On Crime ◽  
Prison Populations

Public schools across the United States have turned to the criminal justice system as a gold standard of discipline. As public schools and offices of justice have become collaborators in punishment, rates of African American suspension and expulsion have soared, dropout rates have accelerated, and prison populations have exploded. Nowhere, perhaps, has the War on Crime been more influential in broadening racialized academic and socioeconomic disparity than in New Orleans, Louisiana, where in 2002 the criminal sheriff opened his own public school at the Orleans Parish Prison. “The Prison School,” as locals called it, enrolled low-income African American boys who had been removed from regular public schools because of nonviolent disciplinary offenses, such as tardiness and insubordination. By examining this school in the local and national context, this book shows how young black males are in the liminal state of losing educational affiliation while being caught in the net of correctional control. This book asks how schools and prisons became so intertwined. What does this mean for students, communities, and a democratic society? And how do we unravel the ties that bind the racialized realities of school failure and mass incarceration?

Incarceration in the United States: The Extent and Future of the Problem

1985 ◽  
Vol 478 (1) ◽  
pp. 15-30 ◽  
Author(s):  
JAMES AUSTIN ◽  
BARRY KRISBERG
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Population Growth ◽  
Prison Population ◽  
The United States ◽  
Current Data ◽  
Special Importance ◽  
Sentencing Reforms ◽  
National Trends ◽  
Prison Populations

The purpose of this article is to summarize and interpret the most current data on imprisonment in the United States. These data will be examined in light of other criminal justice and national trends affecting prison population growth. Of special importance will be analysis of historical and projected trends in the use of American prisons. This will include an examination of the methods used to forecast future incarceration rates in light of changing criminal justice policies and other factors believed to influence prison population growth. The authors conclude that despite a projected national trend of a leveling off of prison admissions, prison populations will continue to rise, reflecting the effects of sentencing reforms aimed at increasing prison terms.

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