I. The Imprisonment Society
A. Prison rates in U.S.
1. 1945-1972: high of 119/100,000 (1961); low of 93/100,000
(1972)
2. 1996: 427/100,000
3. By comparison, most of the world's industrial democracies
more like our rates in the 1950s and 1960s or even lower (Japan:
36/100,000)
B. Why so much more imprisonment here?
1. More violent crime: e.g., homicide rate among young men
in 1994: U.S., 37/100,000; Japan, 1/60 that rate; England, 1/37;
Canada, 1/12.
2. War on Drugs: 8% of prison population in 1980; 26% by
1993
3. Greater frequency and length of sentence for a given crime:
violent offenders 57% of prison population in 1980; 44% in 1995
C. Impact
1. Minorities: African Americans now a majority in our prisons
2. Women: 1970: 5,600 women in state and federal prisons;
1996: 75,000
3. Prison industry: construction, personnel, budgets, and
overcrowding
Correctional employment up 108% from 1983 to l993 (Chesney-Lind,
p. 172)
4. UMD: proposed masters program
Currie: "In a very real sense, we have been engaging
in an experiment, testing the degree to which a modern industrial
society can maintain order through the threat of punishment."
D. Effectiveness of our "prison experiment"
1. National incarceration rate doubled, 1985-1995, and every
major reported violent crime increased
2. Lousiana: 1996--3rd highest prison rate (after Texas and
D.C.), first highest murder rate
E. Informal social controls vs. formal social controls: the
case of Japan (David Bayley: "Learning about Crime: the Japanese
Experience")
1. Background factors in common with U.S.: urbanization,
industrialization, violent national traditions, mass media
2. Differences
a. Vitality of informal social groups
b. Attitude toward authority
c. Closer cooperation between criminal justice systems and
neighborhoods
II. Prison myths
A. The myth of leniency
B. Effect of "three-strikes" laws; most violent
repeat offenders were already getting long sentences
C. Prison works: "Without dramatic growth of imprisonment,
crime rates would be even worse." Currie asks: Compared to
what?
D. Nothing else works:
"What Works: Questions and Answers about Prison Reform."Robert
Martinson, 1974
III. Women and Prison
"Voices from Inside" VC 3366
Paretsky: Hard Time
Chesney-Lind, The Female Offender
A. Effects of get tough policies
1. 1985-1994: total female arrests up 36.5%, imprisonment,
up 202%.
2. Proportion in prison for violent crimes: 1979: 48.9%; 1991:
32.3%
3. 1/3 in prison for drug crimes in 1991
4. Prison construction: 34 new women's prisons in the 1980s
B. Prison and victimization
1. Backgrounds: 43% of women in prison (and 12% of men) reported
background of physical and/or sexual abuse in a 1991 random survey
for the Bureau of Justice Statistics (N=13,986)
2. 41.5% used drugs daily before prison (compared with 35.7%
of men)
3. 2/3 of women had at least one child under 18; only 22%
of these mothers report husbands caring for children during their
imprisonment
4. 46% African American, 14% Latino
5. Sexual abuse scandals in the 1990s in California, Georgia,
Hawaii, Ohio, Louisiana, Michigan, Tennessee, New York and New
Mexico
a. strip searches and videotaping
b. institutional subcultures that discourage correctional
personnel from "ratting" on each other
c. inadequate protections for women who file complaints
6. Social control in prison: McClellan (1994) study in Texas
Men's prisons: 65% of men had one or no citation for a rule
violation in a one-year perios
Women: comparable figure of 17%
Chesney-Lind: "Most of these offenders are poor, undereducated,
unskilled, victims of past physical or sexual abuse, and single
mothers of at least two children. They enter the criminal justice
system with a host of unique medical, psychological, and financial
problems."
Her solution: decarceration for most, along with community
treatment.