Mass Incarceration

My interest in mass incarceration began a long time ago. I entered the field of research working as a research associate for researcher who was a criminologist. Like many people, when Michelle Alexander's book, The New Jim Crow, came out in 2010, I was eager to read it. However, as I read it, I had a growing unease about the way she was presenting some of the data. The numbers just didn't add up. To be clear, I am one of those people who believe and advocate for prison reform. The US incarcerates at a much higher percentage than any other western industrialized country. And I agree that mass incarceration has ripped apart and deeply scared communities of color. But that doesn't change the fact that much of the claims about the data in Alexander's book does not hold up under close scrutiny. She has since admitted as much. But she adds that the data is not the main point-- that we also have to "the impact of parole and probation, as well as the lifelong stigma and restrictions that convicted persons face." I agree with her on that-- we must absolutely consider those things if we want to truly understand the impact on not just the person, but also the communities in which that person is embedded-- that true prison reform would need to include reforming how we reintegrate people into our communities. 

All that being said, I don't believe that the best way to make that case is to base one's argument on faultily drawn conclusions from data. In the worse case scenario, doubling down on the faulty conclusions results in reinforcing misconceptions in the large population. For example, the rallying cry for the last 10 years has been about reforming drug laws that in fact impact a very small portion of the US prison population.

Instead, I believe it's important to not ignore the data just because it doesn't fit neatly into what I may already believe. Taking the data's results seriously forces us to confront what the real problems may be. For example, the data yields two revelations that force us to confront some very uncomfortable or inconvenient questions:

1. The first is that the vast majority of people age out of committing crimes; most people in their 40s just aren't committing crimes. 

2. The second is that the large majority of the US prison population are incarcerated for violent offenses, not drug crimes. It should be noted that even for many of these convicted of violent offenses, the acts are likely one-offs-- in other words, most are not likely to re-offend (especially if they;'ve aged in prison (see above)). So if we're interested in real reform that will shrink our prison population, we have to contend with whether we're ready to make real reform for these prisoners.

Taken together, these two facts tell us a very different story than the one that Alexander tells and it demands us to confront different solutions. Namely, if we are incarcerating people under the guise of protecting our communities, there is little reason for us to be worried once the incarcerated reach a certain age. In fact, the U.S. prison population is rapidly graying. If we accept that both of the above revelations are true, it seems we should be releasing many more of our prisoners. And here's is where the uncomfortable questions come in. 

• Are we prepared to let many more prisoners out? What I've found is that students are overwhelmingly in favor of prison reform until they are asked to see themselves or their own families as the direct victims of crimes. Then, they are much more likely to lean toward punishment and long prison terms, rather than rehabilitation. 

• So this is really a question about what our goals are when we are confronted with people who have committed crimes: Punishment? Retribution? Rehabilitation? What length of sentence are we comfortable with and for which crimes?

Here are some great resources for understanding what the data actually tells us:

Books of Note

• Michelle Alexander  (2010) The New Jim Crow

• James Forman Jr.  (2017) Locking Up Our Own: Crime and Punishment in Black America

• John Pfaff (2017) Locked In

Good Reads on this Topic

• Brennen Center - The History of Mass Incarceration - a really brief overview

• CNN - 5 facts behind America's high incarceration rate

1. Most inmates are held in state prisons and local jails – not federal prisons.

2. In many cities and states, money often decides who stays in jail and who gets out.

3. The ‘war on drugs’ isn’t solely to blame for mass incarceration.

4. Once you’re in the criminal justice system, it’s often difficult to get out.

5. Minorities are still overrepresented in the prison population, but racial and ethnic gaps are shrinking.

• The Atlantic - 'Until the Drug Dealer's Teeth Rattle', APRIL 26, 2017

  • Examines how black communities inadvertently helped lay the groundwork for mass incarceration.

• The Marshall Project - Everything You Think You Know About Mass Incarceration Is Wrong (Or at least misleading, says this contrarian scholar. Here’s why it matters.)

• Columbia Social Work Review - Eradicating Mass Incarceration Will Take a Lot More Than Putting an End to the War on Drugs

• The New Yorker - Ten Years After “The New Jim Crow”

Data Sources

• Prison Policy Initiative (one of the best places for prison statistics and the most granular look at the data that I've ever found)