The dire state of mass incarceration in the United States is a direct result of harsh policies and failed punitive sentencing approaches to control crime.
The US undoubtedly has one of the highest rates of incarceration in the world which disproportionately affects people of colour. In 2021, over 1.2 million people were imprisoned – nearly six times the prison population of 50 years ago – and more than 630,000 people were incarcerated in jail. The probation and parole population was roughly 3.7 million people. In total, the 5.7 million people under correctional supervision is about the same population size as Minnesota or the entire country of Finland. To support this system of mass incarceration, the US correctional system employs over two million full-time workers. To put this labour force in context, the number of people employed in the US correctional system is equivalent to the population of New Mexico or Latvia.
How did the US get here? Starting in 1973, policy shifts and changes in public opinion favoured heavy-handed criminal justice ‘solutions’ that would ‘get tough’ on crime, resulting in a rapid growth of the prison population.
Over the following decades, politicians increasingly passed punitive policies at the federal and state levels. Many of these policies increased the number of individuals sent to prison (e.g. mandatory minimum sentencing) and the length of time served. One of the most staggering policy shifts was the proliferation and adoption of life sentencing. Today, over 200,000 people in the US are serving a life sentence, which is more than the total number of people who were serving any sentence in 1970. Beyond extreme sentencing, monetary sanctions also escalated dramatically. There are real challenges to paying off legal financial obligations that result from criminal legal contact. The use of citations, which generate legal financial obligations, are disproportionately levied against those who are most vulnerable – the poor and working classes, people of colour and communities who lack access to power.
The state of mass incarceration contributes to other social problems, such as unpaid or underpaid labour and lack of access to education. Americans serving prison time may find themselves forced into dangerous and arduous work for a fraction of the wages received by community members. In the US, the 13th Amendment allows for slavery and indentured servitude as punishments for criminal offences. If someone wants to pursue an education while incarcerated, to increase their opportunities for success (e.g. employment) upon their return to the community, they will find that several decades of defunding educational programmes has limited their opportunities. Complicating this problem are that the rules of many universities and colleges severely limit or exclude the formerly incarcerated from enrolling in courses.
One pathway to decarceration, or decreasing the US prison population, is the use of parole. However, the collateral problems of the parole system contribute to the compounding complications of mass incarceration. Subjective judgements about levels of remorse, as well as an over-reliance on conviction offence, results in incarcerated individuals lacking a pathway to release.
Pathways for reintegration back into communities are further limited by people’s criminal history records and collateral consequences by a series of punishments that occur after someone completes their sentence. Interrelationships between housing instability and incarceration are one example of these extra judicial punishments. Housing instability increases the likelihood of incarceration, but the consequences of incarceration also constrain the ability of someone to have a stable home. There are also connections between access to housing and employment after re-entry into society. This is especially concerning because many employers and housing companies require disclosure of criminal records in their applications. The collateral consequences of incarceration also extend to community members and their families, with repercussions for the children of parents who are serving a prison sentence. Even participation in civic life that many regard as central to the principles of democracy – the right to vote – may be denied due to a felony conviction. Denying voting rights to people with criminal records is an unwise policy that exacerbates racial inequality.
While we have highlighted the content of each chapter, we encourage readers to explore the full volume. The heart of this work is a hopeful vision for the future. In this vision, evidence-based solutions inform the policies and actions directed toward the criminal legal system and the social problem of crime. This means a drastic shift away from supporting policies based on the ‘get tough on crime’ narrative – which often elicits emotionally driven policy responses – towards critical, reasoned and scientific ideas about addressing crime in the United States. This future administers justice without the inherent inequities, forms of intergenerational harms and exploitation in the current criminal legal system. In the rush to punish, it is too easy to forget our basic humanity and that we collectively share this world.
A future without mass incarceration is only possible if we – individually and collectively – challenge the current system. This means recognising that most people age out crime by their mid-20s – a social fact supported by a long line of research. Lengthy prison sentences use vast financial resources with diminishing returns. In addition, long prison sentences do little to deter criminal behaviour, as individuals are often unaware of the extent of punishment for breaking the law.
Mass incarceration also disrupts home, family and community and creates or exacerbates other social harms. For example, those with substance use disorders, who are a little over half of those incarcerated, need medical and scientific intervention and not criminalisation. Diversion into rehabilitation centres or harm-reduction programmes are typically a fraction of the cost of incarceration with a higher rate of success. In addition, there are many people who commit types of crime with low recidivism rates, yet exceptionally long sentencing persists. Reducing mass incarceration also means taking on a variety of preventative strategies and social investments, such as ensuring all children have access to healthy food in order form proper brain and cognitive development as young adults – a factor related to reduced offending. Public schools –and even prisons and jails – can focus on teaching empathy skills, which are associated with a reduction in criminal behaviour.
We can have a criminal legal system that holds people accountable for their behaviour. At the same time, that system needs to also recognise the humanity and dignity of those who are justice impacted. This system needs to confront the difficult notion that everyone has the capacity for growth and change.
Curated by the Society for the Study of Social Problems (SSSP) and The Sentencing Project, Beyond Bars, edited by Kristen Budd, David Lane, Glenn W. Muschert and Jason Smith, is available Open Access on the Bristol University Press Digital website.
Highlighting how mass incarceration has exacerbated several existing social problems, inequalities and injustices, this volume follows SSSP’s rapid response volumes on the COVID-19 pandemic (Volume 1; Volume 2).Bristol University Press/Policy Press newsletter subscribers receive a 25% discount – sign up here.
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