Neoliberalism, mass incarceration, and the US debt–criminal justice complex

2018 ◽  
Vol 39 (2) ◽  
pp. 248-267 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dillon Wamsley
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Economic Restructuring ◽  
Mass Incarceration ◽  
The United States ◽  
Consumer Debt ◽  
Early 19Th Century ◽  
Historical Processes ◽  
The Us ◽  
Economic Landscape

While debtors’ prisons in the United States were outlawed in the early 19th century, recent reports indicate that a growing number of people across the US are currently imprisoned for debt. This process typically occurs in two ways: debtors are found in contempt of court for non-appearance after being pressured into repaying consumer debt, or offenders are incarcerated for unpaid legal financial obligations (LFOs) incurred in the criminal justice system. While numerous legal scholars have examined these practices, little scholarship has situated this phenomenon within the politico-economic landscape of neoliberalism. Seeking to chart the intersections between economic restructuring and the expansion of the carceral state over the past 40 years, this article situates the modern debt–criminal justice complex within the broader historical trajectories of debt, incarceration, and institutional racism within the US. Emphasizing the centrality of US state reforms implemented under neoliberalism, this article examines the transformation of the federal welfare system toward ‘workfare’, as well as bankruptcy reforms implemented in the context of rising consumer debt during the 1990s and early 2000s. I maintain that these overlapping transformations, alongside the expansion of the criminal justice apparatus, were central historical processes that shaped the modern debt–criminal justice complex in the US, which continues to criminalize low-income and racialized populations across the country.

scholarly journals Mercy towards decarceration: Examining the legal constraints on early release from prison

Incarceration ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 263266632097780
Author(s):  
Alexandra Cox ◽  
Dwayne Betts
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Criminal Justice System ◽  
Justice System ◽  
Family Members ◽  
The United States ◽  
Early Release ◽  
The Us ◽  
Legal Constraints ◽  
Release From Prison

There are close to seven million people under correctional supervision in the United States, both in prison and in the community. The US criminal justice system is widely regarded as an inherently unmerciful institution by scholars and policymakers but also by people who have spent time in prison and their family members; it is deeply punitive, racist, expansive and damaging in its reach. In this article, we probe the meanings of mercy for the institution of parole.

scholarly journals The convergence of racial and income disparities in health insurance coverage in the United States

2021 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
De-Chih Lee ◽  
Hailun Liang ◽  
Leiyu Shi
Keyword(s):  
Health Insurance ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Insurance Coverage ◽  
Health Insurance Coverage ◽  
The United States ◽  
Combined Effect ◽  
Medical Expenditure ◽  
The Us ◽  
Race Ethnicity ◽  
Vulnerability Measure

Abstract Objective This study applied the vulnerability framework and examined the combined effect of race and income on health insurance coverage in the US. Data source The household component of the US Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS-HC) of 2017 was used for the study. Study design Logistic regression models were used to estimate the associations between insurance coverage status and vulnerability measure, comparing insured with uninsured or insured for part of the year, insured for part of the year only, and uninsured only, respectively. Data collection/extraction methods We constructed a vulnerability measure that reflects the convergence of predisposing (race/ethnicity), enabling (income), and need (self-perceived health status) attributes of risk. Principal findings While income was a significant predictor of health insurance coverage (a difference of 6.1–7.2% between high- and low-income Americans), race/ethnicity was independently associated with lack of insurance. The combined effect of income and race on insurance coverage was devastating as low-income minorities with bad health had 68% less odds of being insured than high-income Whites with good health. Conclusion Results of the study could assist policymakers in targeting limited resources on subpopulations likely most in need of assistance for insurance coverage. Policymakers should target insurance coverage for the most vulnerable subpopulation, i.e., those who have low income and poor health as well as are racial/ethnic minorities.

scholarly journals Amnesty or Abolition?

2011 ◽  
Vol 1 (4) ◽  
pp. 54-68 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kelly Lytle Hernández
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Welfare State ◽  
Social Welfare ◽  
Control Systems ◽  
Undocumented Immigrants ◽  
Mass Incarceration ◽  
The United States ◽  
Immigration Control ◽  
The Social

Convicts and undocumented immigrants are similarly excluded from full social and political membership in the United States. Disfranchised, denied core protections of the social welfare state and subject to forced removal from their homes, families, and communities, convicts and undocumented immigrants, together, occupy the caste of outsiders living within the United States. This essay explores the rise of the criminal justice and immigration control systems that frame the caste of outsiders. Reaching back to the forgotten origins of immigration control during the era of black emancipation, this essay highlights the deep and allied inequities rooted in the rise of immigration control and mass incarceration.

The Violence of Inequality: Race and Lobbying in the Politics of Crime and Criminal Justice in the United States

2021 ◽  
pp. 68-93
Author(s):  
Sappho Xenakis ◽  
Leonidas K. Cheliotis
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Policy Making ◽  
Political Process ◽  
The United States ◽  
Reciprocal Relationship ◽  
Criminal Justice Policy ◽  
The Political ◽  
The Us

There is no shortage of scholarly and other research on the reciprocal relationship that inequality bears to crime, victimisation and contact with the criminal justice system, both in the specific United States context and beyond. Often, however, inequality has been studied in conjunction with only one of the three phenomena at issue, despite the intersections that arguably obtain between them–and, indeed, between their respective connections with inequality itself. There are, moreover, forms of inequality that have received far less attention in pertinent research than their prevalence and broader significance would appear to merit. The purpose of this chapter is dual: first, to identify ways in which inequality’s linkages to crime, victimisation and criminal justice may relate to one another; and second, to highlight the need for a greater focus than has been placed heretofore on the role of institutionalised inequality of access to the political process, particularly as this works to bias criminal justice policy-making towards the preferences of financially motivated state lobbying groups at the expense of disadvantaged racial minorities. In so doing, the chapter singles out for analysis the US case and, more specifically, engages with key extant explanations of the staggering rise in the use of imprisonment in the country since the 1970s.

Explorations in Intersectional Policymaking

2020 ◽  
pp. 119-146
Author(s):  
Beth Reingold
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Urban Communities ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Women Of Color ◽  
Mass Incarceration ◽  
State Legislators ◽  
Small Subset ◽  
Democratic State ◽  
Boys Of Color ◽  
Policy Arenas

Chapter 5 explores the concept of intersectional policymaking further by examining closely the content of legislation sponsored by a small subset of Democratic state legislators serving majority-minority constituencies in California, New Jersey, and Texas in 1997 and 2005. What might intersectional policymaking look like and who practices it? The analysis uncovers a wide variety of intersectional proposals, spanning multiple policy arenas and addressing many different problems arising from multiple, intersecting forms of inequality and marginalization. Particularly notable are measures concerning the health and welfare of women of color, immigrants, and others often disproportionately located within low-income communities, as well as criminal justice measures taking on issues of over-policing and mass incarceration that disproportionately affect men and boys of color in similar low-income, urban communities. Most lawmakers in this subsample sponsor at least one intersectional bill, but women of color stand out as the most reliable practitioners of intersectional advocacy.

Politics, Power, and Money

2021 ◽  
pp. 98-118
Author(s):  
Sandro Galea
Keyword(s):  
Low Income ◽  
The United States ◽  
Political Leaders ◽  
The Public ◽  
Political Dynamics ◽  
Public Health Infrastructure ◽  
The Us ◽  
Data Informed ◽  
Disproportionate Burden ◽  
Trump Administration

This chapter investigates how politics and power shape health outcomes, with special emphasis on how these forces intersect with economic inequality and the disproportionate burden of sickness experienced by low-income populations. During the spread of COVID-19, American political leadership faced a test of its ability to respond to sudden crisis. Rising to such a difficult occasion requires detailed plans for what to do in such a scenario, robust public health infrastructure, and leadership which takes decisive, data-informed action, listening to experts and communicating clearly and consistently with the public. Tragically, COVID-19 found the United States lacking in all these areas. Political leaders are in a position to mold public opinion, nudging the public mind towards new ways of thinking. The precise term for this is “shifting the Overton window.” By helping to mainstream a cavalier attitude towards COVID-19, the Trump administration shifted the Overton window towards greater acceptance of behaviors which create poorer health. The chapter then looks at the failure to adequately address race in the US. Among the factors that shape health, the area of race is particularly sensitive to political dynamics.

scholarly journals Efficient Child Care Subsidies

2020 ◽  
Vol 110 (1) ◽  
pp. 162-199 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christine Ho ◽  
Nicola Pavoni
Keyword(s):  
Child Care ◽  
Low Income ◽  
The United States ◽  
Tax Rates ◽  
Child Care Subsidies ◽  
Optimal Program ◽  
The Us ◽  
Marginal Tax Rates ◽  
Welfare Problem ◽  
Care Costs

We study the design of child care subsidies in an optimal welfare problem with heterogeneous private market productivities. The optimal subsidy schedule is qualitatively similar to the existing US scheme. Efficiency mandates a subsidy on formal child care costs, with higher subsidies paid to lower income earners and a kink as a function of child care expenditure. Marginal labor income tax rates are set lower than the labor wedges, with the potential to generate negative marginal tax rates. We calibrate our simple model to features of the US labor market and focus on single mothers with children aged below 6. The optimal program provides stronger participation but milder intensive margin incentives for low-income earners with subsidy rates starting very high and decreasing with income more steeply than those in the United States. (JEL D82, H21, H24, J13, J16, J32)

The Criminal Justice System and the Racialization of Perceptions

2013 ◽  
Vol 651 (1) ◽  
pp. 104-121 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aliya Saperstein ◽  
Andrew M. Penner ◽  
Jessica M. Kizer
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Longitudinal Data ◽  
Social Interactions ◽  
Criminal Justice System ◽  
Justice System ◽  
Mass Incarceration ◽  
The United States ◽  
Racial Categories ◽  
Racial Perceptions

Recent research on how contact with the criminal justice system shapes racial perceptions in the United States has shown that incarceration increases the likelihood that people are racially classified by others as black, and decreases the likelihood that they are classified as white. We extend this work, using longitudinal data with information on whether respondents have been arrested, convicted, or incarcerated, and details about their most recent arrest. This allows us to ask whether any contact with the criminal justice system triggers racialization, or only certain types of contact. Additional racial categories allow us to explore the racialization of crime beyond the black-white divide. Results indicate even one arrest significantly increases the odds of subsequently being classified as black, and decreases the odds of being classified as white or Asian. This implies a broader impact of increased policing and mass incarceration on racialization and stereotyping, with consequences for social interactions, political attitudes, and research on inequality.

scholarly journals Constrained Bodies: Dance, Social Justice, and Choreographic Agency

2016 ◽  
Vol 48 (3) ◽  
pp. 45-57 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stacey Prickett
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Social Justice ◽  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Justice System ◽  
Mass Incarceration ◽  
The United States ◽  
First Century ◽  
Presidential Candidate ◽  
Social Injustice ◽  
Key Concepts

The first part of the twenty-first century has been marked by particularly fraught social and racial tensions in the United States, brought to awareness internationally by the Black Lives Matter protest movement that started in 2014 and the vitriol espoused by the 2016 Republican presidential candidate. Randy Martin's work offers paradigms for interrogating the relationships between dance and its sociopolitical contexts that are highly relevant at this historical juncture. Drawing on some of Martin's key concepts, this article explores choreographic agency and creative strategies in dances that respond to issues of social injustice, mass incarceration, and racial disparities in the criminal justice system. Works by Joanna Haigood (Zaccho Dance Theatre), Amie S. Dowling, filmmaker Justin Forbord, and Kyle Abraham (Abraham.In.Motion) focus on narratives of oppression and disenfranchisement yet also inspire resistance and hope.

scholarly journals Income-based inequalities in self-reported moderate-to-vigorous physical activity among adolescents in England and the United States: a cross-sectional study

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shaun Scholes ◽  
Jennifer S Mindell
Keyword(s):  
Physical Activity ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Vigorous Physical Activity ◽  
The United States ◽  
Cross Sectional Study ◽  
High Income ◽  
Sectional Study ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
The Us ◽  
Low Income Households

Objective: Quantify inequalities in self-reported moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) in England and the United States (US). Design: Population-based cross-sectional study. Participants: 4019 adolescents aged 11-15 years in England (Health Survey for England 2008, 2012, 2015) and 4312 aged 12-17 years in the US (National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2007-16). Main outcome measures: Three aspects of MVPA: (1) doing any, (2) average min/day (MVPA: including those who did none), and (3) average min/day conditional on participation (MVPA-active). Using hurdle models, we quantified inequalities (average marginal effects: AMEs) using the absolute difference in marginal means. Results: In England, adolescents in high-income households were more likely than those in low-income households to have done any formal sports/exercise in the last seven days (boys: 11%; 95% CI: 4% to 17%; girls: 13%; 95% CI: 6% to 20%); girls in high-income households did more than their low-income counterparts (MVPA: 6 min/day, 95% CI: 2 to 9). Girls in low-income households spent more time in informal activities than girls in high-income households (MVPA: 21 min/day; 95% CI: 10 to 33), whilst boys in low-income versus high-income households spent longer in active travel (MVPA: 21 min/week; 95% CI: 8 to 34). In the US, in a typical week, recreational activity was greater among high-income versus low-income households (boys: 15 min/day; 95% CI: 6 to 24 min/day; girls: 19 min/day; 95% CI: 12 to 27). In contrast, adolescents in low-income versus high-income households were more likely to travel actively (boys: 11%; 95% CI: 3% to 19%; girls: 10%; 95% CI: 3% to 17%) and do more. Conclusions: Policy actions and interventions are required to increase MVPA across all income groups in England and the US. Differences in formal sports/exercise (England) and recreational (US) activities suggest that additional efforts are required to reduce inequalities.

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