A3N: What drives the US to imprison so many people?
NAH: These harsh policies have not proliferated in response to crime rates or any empirical data that indicates their effectiveness. Rather, these policies proliferated because of our unfounded fears. The short answer is this: harsh criminal justice policies are the result of racism, classism, media mythologies, and the connection of the profit motive for incarceration on a mass scale.
Mandatory minimums for drug violations, "three strikes" laws, increased use of imprisonment as a sentencing option, lengthy prison terms, adult certification for juveniles, and the expanded use of the death penalty all disproportionately affect the poor and people of color. A brief glimpse into the statistics immediately reveals both the magnitude of these policy changes, as well as their racial dynamic. Despite no statistical differences in rates of offending, the poor, the under-educated, and people of color, particularly African Americans, are over-represented in these statistics at every phase of the criminal justice system (Walker, Spohn & DeLone 2007).
One in every 35 adults is under correctional supervision and one in 100 adults is in prison. Looking at the racial dynamics, one in every 100 black women, one in 36 Latino adults, one in 15 black men, and one in nine black men ages 20 to 34 are incarcerated (Pew 2008). Approximately 50% of all prisoners are black, 30% are white and 17% are Latino (Bureau of Justice Statistics 2007). Notably, the race of victim, race of offender, and social class remain the best predictors of who will receive the death penalty.
The racial disparities are even greater for youth. African Americans represent 17% of the youth population, but account for 45% of all juvenile arrests (NAACP 2005). Black youth are 2 times more likely than white youth to be arrested, to be referred to juvenile court, to be formally processed and adjudicated as delinquent, or referred to the adult criminal justice system. Black youth are 3 times more likely than white youth to be sentenced to out-of-home residential placement (Panel on Justice 2001; Walker, Spohn and Delone 2007). Nationally, one in every three Black and one in six Latino boys born in 2001 are at risk of imprisonment during their lifetime. While boys are five times as likely to be incarcerated as girls, girls are at increasing risk. This rate of incarceration is endangering children at younger and younger ages (Children's Defense Fund 2007).
To complicate matters, punitive policies extend beyond prison time served. In addition to the direct impact of mass criminalization and incarceration, there is plethora of what Mauer and Chesney-Lind (2002) refer to as "invisible punishments." "Collateral consequences" are now attached to many felony convictions and include voter disenfranchisement, denial of Federal welfare, medical, housing or educational benefits, accelerated time-lines for loss of parental rights, and exclusion from any number of employment opportunities.
Collateral consequences are particularly harsh for drug felons, who represent the bulk of the recently incarcerated. Drug felons are permanently barred from receiving public assistance such as TANF, Medicaid, food stamps or SSI, federal financial aid for education, and federal housing assistance. These policies dramatically reduce the successful re-integration of former inmates and they increase the likelihood of recidivism and return to prison.
Prison has become a source of profit. The prison industrial complex is a self-perpetuating machine where the vast profits (e.g. cheap labor, construction contracts, job creation, and continued media profits from exaggerated crime reporting and crime/punishment as entertainment) and perceived political benefits (e.g. reduced unemployment rates, "get tough on crime" and public safety rhetoric, and funding increases for police and criminal justice system agencies and professionals) lead to policies that are additionally designed to insure an endless supply of "clients" for the criminal justice system. These self-serving policies include enhanced police presence in poor neighborhoods and communities of color; racial profiling; decreased funding for public education combined with zero-tolerance policies and increased rates of expulsion for students of color; increased rates of adult certification for juvenile offenders; mandatory minimum and "three-strikes" sentencing; draconian conditions of incarceration and a reduction of prison services that contribute to the likelihood of "recidivism."
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