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."

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Diversification propaganda work with foreign audiences

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (4(13)) ◽  
pp. 31-50
Author(s):  
Shiyu Zhang ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Developing Countries ◽  
International Relations ◽  
Strategic Partnership ◽  
The Past ◽  
Bilateral Relations ◽  
The Media ◽  
The Relationship

Over the past decade, bilateral relations between China and Russia have attracted the attention of the whole world. As neighbors and rapidly developing countries, China and Russia are becoming increasingly important in the international arena. The strategic partnership and interaction between China and Russia occupy a significant place in the politics of both countries. Cooperation is developing dynamically in various fields, primarily in politics. After 2012, a change of government took place in China and Russia, which brought new changes to international relations. Studying the involvement of the media in this process can clarify their impact on international relations, in particular, their role in the relationship between China and Russia.

Beyond the austerity-driven hypothesis: Political economic theses on penality and the recent prison population decline

2021 ◽  
pp. 147737082110006
Author(s):  
José A. Brandariz
Keyword(s):  
Prison Population ◽  
Population Decline ◽  
Theoretical Frameworks ◽  
The Past ◽  
Economic Forces ◽  
Global North ◽  
Economic Perspectives ◽  
Political Economic ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Spending Cuts

In what might be called the ‘austerity-driven hypothesis’, a consistent strand of literature has sought to explain the prison downsizing witnessed in many jurisdictions of the global north over the past decade by referring to the financial crisis of the late 2000s to early 2010s and its effects in terms of public spending cuts. Since this economic phase is essentially over, whereas the (moderate) decarceration turn is still ongoing, there are good reasons to challenge this hypothesis. This article delves into the non-economic forces that are fostering a prison population decline that, 10 years on, is becoming the new ‘penal normal’. The article thereby aims to spark a dialogue not only with the scholarship exploring the prison downsizing but also with certain theoretical frameworks that have played a key role in examining the punitive turn era. Additionally, the article contributes to the conversation on the need to reframe materialist readings on penality in a ‘non-reductionist’ fashion. By revisiting heterodox theses and scrutinizing the impact of recent penal changes on traditional materialist accounts, the article joins the collective endeavour seeking to update political economic perspectives on punishment and the penal field.

Talk like an Egyptian? Epistemological problems with the synthesis of a vocal sound from the mummified remains of Nesyamun and racial designations in mummy studies

2021 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 37-49
Author(s):  
Uroš Matić
Keyword(s):  
Human Remains ◽  
General State ◽  
Considerable Part ◽  
Ethical Problems ◽  
Egyptian Mummy ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Media

AbstractThe paper examines epistemological problems behind a recent study claiming to provide a synthesis of a vocal sound from the mummified remains of a man named Nesyamun and behind racial designations in Egyptian mummy studies more generally. So far, responses in the media and academia concentrated on the ethical problems of these studies, whereas their theoretical and methodological backgrounds have been rarely addressed or mentioned only in passing. It seems that the media reaction has targeted the synthesis of a sound rather than other, equally problematic, assumptions found in Egyptian mummy studies. By focusing on the epistemological problems, it will be demonstrated that the issues of greatest concern are endemic to a general state of a considerable part of the discipline of Egyptology and its unreflective engagement with the material remains of the past, especially human remains.

“We Are All Humans and Deserve a Decent Way to Go”: Examining Professional’s Experiences With Providing End-of-Life Care in Correctional Institutions

2021 ◽  
pp. 073401682110208
Author(s):  
Mollee Steely Smith ◽  
Brooke Cooley ◽  
Tusty ten Bensel
Keyword(s):  
End Of Life ◽  
End Of Life Care ◽  
Service Providers ◽  
Prison Population ◽  
Correctional Institutions ◽  
Southern State ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
The Past ◽  
Eol Care ◽  
Emotional Effects

The aging prison population has increased dramatically over the past two decades. As this population increases, correctional institutions are faced with health care challenges. Specifically, providing adequate end-of-life (EOL) care for terminally ill inmates has been a concern. Despite issues relating to providing EOL care, little is known about medical and correctional staff’s attitudes toward the implementation of EOL care. The purpose of this study was to understand the challenges faced by correctional and medical professionals, focusing on job satisfaction, obstacles, and emotional effects of providing EOL care in correctional institutions. Our data included 17 semistructured, face-to-face interviews with medical and correctional staff assigned to the EOL care unit in a southern state. Although the entire sample stated overall satisfaction with their job, participants noted several challenges and stressors, which included the lack of resources and difficulties in balancing care. Participants agreed that it was emotionally stressful to maintain appropriate relationships with the inmates, deal with patient manipulation, and be surrounded by dying and death. Implications are discussed relative to the needs and experiences of service providers and how to more effectively treat EOL inmate patients.

News on the 700 Club: The Cycle of Religious Activism

1994 ◽  
Vol 71 (4) ◽  
pp. 887-892 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Abelman
Keyword(s):  
Content Analysis ◽  
Religious Right ◽  
Presidential Campaign ◽  
High Profile ◽  
The Past ◽  
News Program ◽  
The Media ◽  
Religious Activism

This content analysis evaluates political topics and themes of televangelist Pat Robertson's high-profile news program The 700 Club during the early months of the 1992 presidential campaign. Considered the media arm of the Religious Right, this program was found to go against the trend of increasingly political and less religious content observed in earlier analyses of equivalent episodes during the 1983, 1986, and 1989 seasons. In addition, political topics were addressed more neutrally than in the past. The study discusses the possible impact of an increasingly competitive telecommunication environment on religious broadcasters.

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