Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t7fkt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-29T11:07:41.404Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Long Reach of the Carceral State: The Politics of Crime, Mass Imprisonment, and Penal Reform in the United States and Abroad

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 December 2018

Marie Gottschalk
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This essay reviews five books as they relate to the causes and political consequences of mass imprisonment in the United States and the comparative politics of penal policy: Ruth Wilson Gilmore'sGolden Gulag: Prisons, Surplus, Crisis, and Opposition in Globalizing California (2007); Jeff Manza and Christopher Uggen'sLocked Out: Felon Disenfranchisement and American Democracy (2006); Jonathan Simon'sGoverning Through Crime: How the War on Crime Transformed American Democracy and Created a Culture of Fear (2007); Michael Tonry, ed., Crime, Punishment, and Politics in a Comparative Perspective (2007); and Bruce Western'sPunishment and Inequality in America (2006).

The essay first examines the enormous and growing political repercussions of having a vast penal system embedded in a democratic polity, including the political and electoral consequences of felon disenfranchisement; increasing political, social, and economic inequality for people marked by the penal system; and the phenomenon of “governing through crime.” It also analyzes emerging strategies of resistance to US penal policies and mass incarceration, why some countries are more vulnerable to hard‐line penal policies than others, and what it will take to reverse the US prison boom.

Type
Review Essay
Information
Law & Social Inquiry , Volume 34 , Issue 2 , Spring 2009 , pp. 439 - 472
Copyright
Copyright © American Bar Foundation, 2009 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

References

Abramsky, Sasha. 2007a. American Furies: Crime, Punishment, and Vengeance in the Age of Mass Imprisonment. Boston: Beacon Press.Google Scholar
Abramsky, Sasha. 2007b. Prison Breakdown: Overcrowding Has Pushed California's Prison System to the Brink. In These Times, November, 21–25.Google Scholar
American Civil Liberties Union. 2008. Deaths in Custody Reporting Act Must Demand Accountability in Federal Immigration Detention Facilities. Press release, September 18. http://www.aclu.org/immigrants/detention/36849prs20080918.html (accessed October 4, 2008).Google Scholar
Bennett, Drake, and Kuttner, Robert. 2003. Crime and Redemption. American Prospect, December 1. http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=crime_and_redemption (accessed January 31, 2009).Google Scholar
Bernstein, Nell. 2005. All Alone in the World: Children of the Incarcerated. New York: New Press.Google Scholar
Bernstein, Nina. 2008. Few Details on Immigrants Who Died in Custody. New York Times, May 5, A1.Google Scholar
Bohrman, Rebecca, and Murakawa, Naomi. 2005. Remaking Big Government: Immigration and Crime Control in the United States. In Global Lockdown: Race, Gender, and the Prison‐Industrial Complex, ed. Sudbury, Julia, 109–26. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Bonczar, Thomas P. 2003. Prevalence of Imprisonment in the U.S. Population, 1972–2001. Bureau of Justice Special Report. Washington, DC: US Department of Justice.Google Scholar
Brewer, Cynthia A., and Suchan, Trudy A. 2001. Mapping Census 2000: The Geography of US Diversity. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office.Google Scholar
Brodeur, Jean‐Paul. 2007. Comparative Penology in Perspective. In Crime, Punishment, and Politics in Comparative Perspective—Crime and Justice: A Review of Research, vol. 36, ed. Tonry, Michael, 49–91. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Brown‐Dean, Khalilah L. 2004. One Lens, Multiple Views: Felon Disenfranchisement Laws and American Political Inequality. PhD diss., Department of Political Science, Ohio State University.Google Scholar
Bumiller, Kristin. 2008. In an Abusive State: How Neoliberalism Appropriated the Feminist Movement Against Sexual Violence. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.Google Scholar
Clear, Todd R. 2007. Imprisoning Communities: How Mass Incarceration Makes Disadvantaged Neighborhoods Worse. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Clemetson, Lynette. 2004. NAACP Legal Defense Fund Chief Retires. New York Times, January 16, A10.Google Scholar
Cohen, Cathy J. 1999. The Boundaries of Blackness: AIDS and the Breakdown of Black Politics. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Cohen, Mark A., Rust, Roland T., and Steen, Sara. 2006. Prevention, Crime Control or Cash? Public Preferences Towards Criminal Justice Spending Priorities. Justice Quarterly 23:317–35.Google Scholar
Coker, Donna. 2001. Crime Control and Feminist Law Reform in Domestic Violence Law: A Critical Review. Buffalo Criminal Law Review 4:801–60.Google Scholar
Comfort, Megan. 2008. Doing Time Together: Love and Family in the Shadow of the Prison. Chicago: Chicago University Press.Google Scholar
Curtin, Mary Ellen. 2000. Black Prisoners and Their World: Alabama, 1865–1900. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press.Google Scholar
Dow, Mark. 2004. American Gulag: Inside US Immigration Prisons. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Downes, David. 2007. Visions of Penal Control in The Netherlands. In Crime, Punishment, and Politics in Comparative Perspective—Crime and Justice: A Review of Research, vol. 36, ed. Tonry, Michael, 93–125. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
DuBois, W. E. B. 1970. Courts and Jails. In The Selected Writings of W. E. B. DuBois, ed. Wilson, Walter, 126–27. New York: Signet Classics.Google Scholar
Furillo, Andy. 2009. Schwarzenegger Plan Would Save Nearly $1 Billion in Prisoner and Parolee Costs. Sacramento Bee, January 2. http://www.sacbee.com/capitolandcalifornia/story/1511503.html (accessed January 8, 2009).Google Scholar
Garland, David. 2001. The Culture of Control: Crime and Social Order in Contemporary Society. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Gilmore, Ruth Wilson. 1999. You Have Dislodged a Boulder: Mothers and Prisoners in the Post Keynesian Californian Landscape. Transforming Anthropology 8:12–38.Google Scholar
Gilmore, Ruth Wilson. 2007. Golden Gulag: Prisons, Surplus, Crisis, and Opposition in Globalizing California. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Glaze, Lauren E., and Bonczar, Thomas P. 2006. Probation and Parole in the United States, 2005. Bureau of Justice Statistics Bulletin, rev. January 18, 2007. Washington, DC: US Department of Justice.Google Scholar
Golden, Renny. 2005. War on the Family: Mothers in Prison and the Families They Leave Behind. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Gómez, Alan Eladio. 2006. Resisting Living Death at Marion Federal Penitentiary, 1972. Radical History Review 96:58–86.Google Scholar
Gonnerman, Jennifer. 2004. Million‐Dollar Blocks. Village Voice, November 16, 28.Google Scholar
Gottschalk, Marie. 2006. The Prison and the Gallows: The Politics of Mass Incarceration in America. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Gottschalk, Marie. 2007. Prisoners of the Census Bureau. LA Times, February 19, A9.Google Scholar
Green, David A. 2007. Comparing Penal Cultures: Child‐on‐Child Homicide in England and Norway. In Crime, Punishment, and Politics in Comparative Perspective—Crime and Justice: A Review of Research, vol. 36, ed. Tonry, Michael, 591–643. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Grits for Breakfast. 2007. Texas Prison and Jail Vote Results. November 6. Updated November 7. http://gritsforbreakfast.blogspot.com/2007/11/texas‐prison‐and‐jail‐vote‐results.html (accessed January 25, 2009).Google Scholar
Herivel, Tara. 2007. Introduction. In Prison Profiteers: Who Makes Money from Mass Incarceration, ed. Herivel, Tara and Wright, Paul, ix–xviii. New York: New Press.Google Scholar
Heyer, Rose, and Wagner, Peter. 2004. Too Big to Ignore: How Counting People in Prisons Distorted 2000 Census. http://www.prisonersofthecensus.org/toobig/toobig.html (accessed May 23, 2008).Google Scholar
Hull, Elizabeth A. 2006. The Disenfranchisement of Ex‐Felons. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.Google Scholar
Jacobson, Michael. 2005. Downsizing Prisons: How to Reduce Crime and End Mass Incarceration. New York: New York University Press.Google Scholar
Institute, JFA. 2007. Public Safety, Public Spending: Forecasting America's Prison Population 2007–2011. Philadelphia: Public Safety Performance Project of the Pew Charitable Trusts.Google Scholar
Johnson, David T. 2007. Crime and Punishment in Contemporary Japan. In Crime, Punishment, and Politics in Comparative Perspective—Crime and Justice: A Review of Research, vol. 36, ed. Tonry, Michael, 371–423. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Justice Policy Institute. 2001. Cutting Correctly: New Prison Policies for Times of Fiscal Crisis. Washington, DC: Justice Policy Institute.Google Scholar
Kaplan, Paul J. 2006. American Exceptionalism and Racialized Inequality in American Capital Punishment. Punishment & Society 31 (6): 149–75.Google Scholar
Kennedy, Randall. 1997. Race, Crime, and the Law. New York: Pantheon.Google Scholar
King, Ryan S. 2008. The State of Sentencing 2007: Developments in Policy and Practice. Washington, DC: The Sentencing Project.Google Scholar
Kolodner, Meredith. 2006. Private Prisons Expect a Boom: Immigration Enforcement to Benefit Detention Companies. New York Times, July 19, C1. Google Scholar
Kraska, Peter B., ed. 2001. Militarizing the American Criminal Justice System: The Changing Role of the Armed Forces and the Police. Boston: Northeastern University Press.Google Scholar
Lappi‐Seppälä, Tapio. 2007. Penal Policy in Scandinavia. In Crime, Punishment, and Politics in Comparative Perspective—Crime and Justice: A Review of Research, vol. 36, ed. Tonry, Michael, 217–95. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Legal Action Center. 2004. After Prison: Roadblocks to Reentry; A Report on State Legal Barriers Facing People With Criminal Records. New York: Legal Action Center.Google Scholar
Lévy, René. 2007. Pardon and Amnesties as Policy Instruments in Contemporary France. In Crime, Punishment, and Politics in Comparative Perspective—Crime and Justice: A Review of Research, vol. 36, ed. Tonry, Michael, 551–90. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Lombardi, Chris. 2002. Justice for Battered Women. The Nation, July 15, 24–27.Google Scholar
Lotke, Eric, and Wagner, Peter. 2004. Prisoners of the Census: Electoral and Financial Consequences of Counting Prisoners Where They Go, Not Where They Come From. Pace Law Review 24:587–608.Google Scholar
Lyons, William, and Drew, Julie. 2006. Punishing Schools: Fear and Citizenship in American Education. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.Google Scholar
Manza, Jeff, and Uggen, Christopher. 2006. Locked Out: Felon Disenfranchisement and American Democracy. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Maruna, Shadd. 2001. Making Good: How Ex‐Convicts Reform and Rebuild Their Lives. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.Google Scholar
Mauer, Marc. 2007. Racial Impact Statements as a Means of Reducing Unwarranted Sentencing Disparities. Ohio State Journal of Criminal Law 5:19–46.Google Scholar
McLennan, Rebecca. 2001. The New Penal State: Globalization, History, and American Criminal Justice, c. 2000. Inter-Asia Cultural Studies 2:407–19.Google Scholar
McLennan, Rebecca. 2008. The Crisis of Imprisonment: Protest, Politics, and the Making of the American Penal State, 1776–1941. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Miller, Lisa L. 2007. The Representational Bias of Federalism: Scope and Bias in the Political Process Revisited. Perspectives on Politics 5:305–21.Google Scholar
Mosher, Clayton, Hooks, Gregory, and Wood, Peter B. 2007. Don't Build It Here: The Hype Versus the Reality of Prisons and Local Employment. In Prison Profiteers: Who Makes Money from Mass Incarceration, ed. Herivel, Tara and Wright, Paul, 90–97. New York: New Press.Google Scholar
Ms. Foundation for Women. 2003. Safety and Justice for All: Examining the Relationship between the Women's Anti‐Violence Movement and the Criminal Legal System. New York: Ms. Foundation for Women.Google Scholar
National Research Council (Panel on Residence Rules in the Decennial Census). 2006. Once, Only Once, and in the Right Place: Residence Rules in the Decennial Census. http://books.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=11727&page=1 (accessed October 7, 2008).Google Scholar
New York Times. 2008. Crime and Punishment in Connecticut. Editorial, April 22.Google Scholar
Newburn, Tim. 2007. “Tough on Crime”: Penal Policy in England and Wales. In Crime, Punishment, and Politics in Comparative Perspective—Crime and Justice: A Review of Research, vol. 36, ed. Tonry, Michael, 425–70. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Orange County Register. 2007. Voters Cut Out of Deal: Lawmakers Pull a Fast One on Prison Bonds. Editorial, May 23.Google Scholar
Oshinsky, David M. 1996. “Worse Than Slavery”: Parchman Farm and the Ordeal of Jim Crow Justice. New York: Free Press.Google Scholar
Pager, Devah. 2007. Marked: Race, Crime, and Finding Work in an Era of Mass Incarceration. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Pettus, Katherine I. 2005. Felony Disenfranchisement in America: Historical Origins, Institutional Racism, and Modern Consequences. New York: LFB Scholarly Publishing.Google Scholar
Pranis, Kevin. 2007. Doing Borrowed Time: The High Cost of Backdoor Prison Finance. In Prison Profiteers: Who Makes Money from Mass Incarceration, ed. Herivel, Tara and Wright, Paul, 36–51. New York: New Press.Google Scholar
Prisoners of the Census. 2006. Too Big to Ignore Interactive Tables: Union County. http://www.prisonersofthecensus.org/toobig/countydetail/05000US42119/ (accessed October 7, 2008).Google Scholar
Rhodes, Lorna A. 2004. Total Confinement: Madness and Reason in the Maximum Security Prison. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Roberts, Sam. 2006. Court Asks if Residency Follows Inmates Up the River. New York Times, May 13, B1.Google Scholar
Roché, Sebastian. 2007. Criminal Justice Policy in France: Illusions of Severity. In Crime, Punishment, and Politics in Comparative Perspective—Crime and Justice: A Review of Research, vol. 36, ed. Tonry, Michael, 471–550. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Sentencing Project. 2008. Iowa Governor Signs Nation's First Racial Impact Sentencing Bill. April 17. http://www.sentencingproject.org/NewsDetails.aspx?NewsID=599 (accessed May 16, 2008).Google Scholar
Sentencing Times. 2007. Maryland, Florida, and Rhode Island Continue Trend to Expand Voting Rights. Fall, 4.Google Scholar
Siegel, Jim. 2007. Ohio Senate, Feds Take Different Tracks on Cocaine. Columbus Dispatch, Daily Briefing, November 13. http://blog.dispatch.com/dailybriefing/2007/11/while_the_ohio_legislature_mov.shtml (accessed August 14, 2008).Google Scholar
Simon, Jonathan. 2007. Governing Through Crime: How the War on Crime Transformed American Democracy and Created a Culture of Fear. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Snacken, Sonja. 2007. Penal Policy and Practice in Belgium. In Crime, Punishment, and Politics in Comparative Perspective—Crime and Justice: A Review of Research, vol. 36, ed. Tonry, Michael, 127–215. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Sontag, Deborah. 2002. Fierce Entanglements. New York Times Magazine, November 17, 52.Google Scholar
Stout, David. 2007. Retroactively, Panel Reduces Sentences. New York Times, December 12, A1.Google Scholar
Sudbury, Julia, ed. 2005. Global Lockdown: Race, Gender, and the Prison‐Industrial Complex. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Talvi, Silja J. A. 2007. Women Behind Bars: The Crisis of Women in the US Prison System. Emeryville, CA: Seal Press.Google Scholar
Tonry, Michael, ed. 2007. Determinants of Penal Policy. In Crime, Punishment, and Politics in Comparative Perspective—Crime and Justice: A Review of Research, vol. 36, 1–48. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
US Census Bureau. 2006. Tabulating Prisoners at Their “Permanent Home of Record” Address. Washington, DC: US Census Bureau.Google Scholar
Wacquant, Loïc. 2008a. Forum. In Race Incarceration, and American Values, ed. Loury, Glenn C., 57–70. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Wacquant, Loïc. 2008b. Ordering Insecurity: Social Polarization and the Punitive Upsurge. Radical Philosophy Review 11 (1): 9–27.Google Scholar
Wagner, Peter. 2002. Importing Constituents: Prisoners and Political Clout in New York. Prison Legal News 13 (10): 1–6.Google Scholar
Wagner, Peter. 2004. Prison Expansion Made 56 Counties With Declining Populations Appear to Be Growing in Census 2000. http://www.prisonersofthecensus.org/news/fact‐26‐4‐2004.html (accessed May 23, 2008).Google Scholar
Webster, Cheryl Marie, and Doob, Anthony N. 2007. Punitive Trends and Stable Imprisonment Rates in Canada. In Crime, Punishment, and Politics in Comparative Perspective—Crime and Justice: A Review of Research, vol. 36, ed. Tonry, Michael, 297–369. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Western, Bruce. 2006. Punishment and Inequality in America. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.Google Scholar
Whitman, James Q. 2003. Harsh Justice: Criminal Punishment and the Widening Divide between America and Europe. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Zimring, Franklin E. 2003. The Contradictions of American Capital Punishment. New York: Oxford Univesity Press.Google Scholar
Zimring, Franklin E., Hawkins, Gordon, and Kamin, Sam. 2001. Punishment and Democracy: Three Strikes and You're Out in California. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Zorza, Joan, and Woods, Laurie. 1994. Analysis and Policy Implications of the New Domestic Violence Police Studies. New York: National Organization for Women Legal Defense and Education Fund.Google Scholar

Cases Cited

Richardson v. Ramirez, 418 U.S. 24 (1974).Google Scholar

Statutes Cited

Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act, Pub. L. No. 104–208, Div. C, 110 Stat. 3009–546 (1996).Google Scholar
United States Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act, Pub. L. No. 104–132, 110 Stat. 1214 (1996).Google Scholar