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.

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.

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.

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."

scholarly journals Mass incarceration and public health: the association between black jail incarceration and adverse birth outcomes among black women in Louisiana

2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lauren Dyer ◽  
Rachel Hardeman ◽  
Dovile Vilda ◽  
Katherine Theall ◽  
Maeve Wallace
Keyword(s):  
Birth Weight ◽  
Preterm Birth ◽  
Black Women ◽  
Low Birth Weight ◽  
Racial Disparities ◽  
Population Health ◽  
Birth Outcomes ◽  
Mass Incarceration ◽  
Interquartile Range ◽  
Adverse Birth Outcomes

Abstract Background A growing body of evidence is beginning to highlight how mass incarceration shapes inequalities in population health. Non-Hispanic blacks are disproportionately affected by incarceration and criminal law enforcement, an enduring legacy of a racially-biased criminal justice system with broad health implications for black families and communities. Louisiana has consistently maintained one of the highest rates of black incarceration in the nation. Concurrently, large racial disparities in population health persist. Methods We conducted a cross-sectional analysis of all births among non-Hispanic black women in Louisiana in 2014 to identify associations between parish-level (county equivalent) prevalence of jail incarceration within the black population and adverse birth outcomes (N = 23,954). We fit a log-Poisson model with generalized estimating equations to approximate the relative risk of preterm birth and low birth weight associated with an interquartile range increase in incarceration, controlling for confounders. In sensitivity analyses, we additionally adjusted for the parish-level index crime prevalence and analyzed regression models wherein white incarceration was used to predict the risk of adverse birth outcomes in order to quantify the degree to which mass incarceration may harm health above and beyond living in a high crime area. Results There was a significant 3% higher risk of preterm birth among black women associated with an interquartile range increase in the parish-level incarceration prevalence of black individuals, independent of other factors. Adjusting for the prevalence of index crimes did not substantively change the results of the models. Conclusion Due to the positive significant associations between the prevalence of black individuals incarcerated in Louisiana jails and estimated risk of preterm birth, mass incarceration may be an underlying cause of the persistent inequities in reproductive health outcomes experienced by black women in Louisiana. Not only are there economic and social impacts stemming from mass incarceration, but there may also be implications for population health and health inequities, including the persistence of racial disparities in preterm birth and low birth weight.

Racial Disparities in Pregnancy-associated Intimate Partner Homicide

2021 ◽  
pp. 088626052199083
Author(s):  
Aaron J. Kivisto ◽  
Samantha Mills ◽  
Lisa S. Elwood
Keyword(s):  
Black Women ◽  
Ethnic Minority ◽  
Racial Disparities ◽  
White Women ◽  
The United States ◽  
Intimate Partner ◽  
Intimate Partner Homicide ◽  
Homicide Victimization ◽  
Increased Risk ◽  
Racial Ethnic

Pregnancy-associated femicide accounts for a mortality burden at least as high as any of the leading specific obstetric causes of maternal mortality, and intimate partners are the most common perpetrators of these homicides. This study examined pregnancy-associated and non-pregnancy-associated intimate partner homicide (IPH) victimization among racial/ethnic minority women relative to their non-minority counterparts using several sources of state-level data from 2003 through 2017. Data regarding partner homicide victimization came from the National Violent Death Reporting System, natality data were obtained from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics, and relevant sociodemographic information was obtained from the U.S. Census Bureau. Findings indicated that pregnancy and racial/ethnic minority status were each associated with increased risk for partner homicide victimization. Although rates of non-pregnancy-associated IPH victimization were similar between Black and White women, significant differences emerged when limited to pregnancy-associated IPH such that Black women evidenced pregnancy-associated IPH rates more than threefold higher than that observed among White and Hispanic women. Relatedly, the largest intraracial discrepancies between pregnant and non-pregnant women emerged among Black women, who experienced pregnancy-associated IPH victimization at a rate 8.1 times greater than their non-pregnant peers. These findings indicate that the racial disparities in IPH victimization in the United States observed in prior research might be driven primarily by the pronounced differences among the pregnant subset of these populations.

Personality, Intellectual, and Behavioral Differences between Black, Chicano, and White Prison Inmates in the Utah State Prison

1977 ◽  
Vol 41 (1) ◽  
pp. 187-191 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard J. Oldroyd ◽  
Robert J. Howell
Keyword(s):  
Prison Population ◽  
The State ◽  
Intelligence Tests ◽  
Prison Inmates ◽  
Behavioral Differences ◽  
State Prison ◽  
Prison Setting ◽  
Black Inmates ◽  
Personal Inadequacy ◽  
Psychological Inventory

There is very little literature on racial characteristics of prisoners. What literature is available seems to be historical and theoretical rather than empirical. The proportion of blacks in the prison population was 15 times greater than that of the Utah population. The proportion of Chicanos was three times greater in the prison than in the state population. The present correlational study compared 668 Caucasian, 103 Chicano, and 73 black inmates on 47 variables considered relevant to the prison setting. Religious differences were prominent as were differences in scores on standard intelligence tests. Chicanos tended to be more assaultive. Blacks posed less escape risk, and fewer blacks used alcohol. Blacks scored as better adjusted on Bipolar Psychological Inventory Scales relating to feelings of personal inadequacy. Other differences were found.

scholarly journals Racial representation of psychological services in a London male remand prison

BJPsych Open ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (S1) ◽  
pp. S72-S73
Author(s):  
Josh Covey ◽  
Joanne Williams ◽  
Radha Kothari ◽  
Scott Bartle
Keyword(s):  
Emotional Regulation ◽  
Help Seeking ◽  
Prison Population ◽  
Psychological Needs ◽  
Racial Group ◽  
Psychological Therapy ◽  
Psychological Services ◽  
Racial Groups ◽  
Hearing Voices ◽  
Prison Populations

AimsTo investigate whether racial groups are proportionally represented in referrals for trauma, hearing voices, emotional regulation and psychological therapy.To understand the psychological needs across racial groups in HMP Wormwood Scrubs, the UK's 4th-most diverse prison.To see if the long-established under-representation of Asian males and over-representation of Mixed males in psychological services in the community is also occuring in the prison system.MethodPsychological referrals were recieved via the medical notes system (SystmOne), whereby a prisoner's name, age, location, racial group and reason for referral are trasnferred into the psychology referrals database.773 referrals were made between October 2018 and May 2020. As the prison's population throughout this time period was fluid, the month of December 2019 was used as a reference for the general prison poipulation.Racial groups were specified using the Office of National Statistics' 5-category classification system (White, Black, Asian, Mixed and Other).ResultThere is a consistent under-representation of Asian males in psychological referrals in relation to their general prison population. Whilst this group makes up 17% of the population of the prison, only 10% of prisoners referred to psychological services identified as Asian.Those identifying as Mixed are over-represented in trauma referrals and psychological therapy referrals. The prison's mixed population is 7%, whereas 16% of those being referred for these two reasons were from the same racial category.The proportion of patients who identified as Black, White or Other and were referred for psychology input were found to be representitive of the wider prison population, suggesting no clear over or under-representation.ConclusionTrends seen in the community in regards to Asian males being under-represented in psychological services are also evident in one of the UK's most diverse prison populations.Public health campaigning to reduce stigma and promote help seeking in BAME communities is of vital importance to provide the needed support for those silently dealing with psychological problems.The two largest racial groups in the prison, White and Black individuals, where found to be proportionally represented in their respective referrals to psychological services.One key finding was in regards to Mixed race individuals, who comprise 7% of the total prison population but 16% of psychology referrals. As this racial group is one of the fastest-growing in addition to be over-represented in referrals, it is vital to understand how provisions can be put in place to appropriately address the needs of this group.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document