Collective Consequences of Mass Incarceration
Mass incarceration is a historically novel, uniquely American, mechanism
of inequality. In the context of existing patterns of stratification
in the labor market, family structure, and neighborhoods, high rates
of incarceration and high levels of exposure to the criminal justice
system more generally, exact damaging consequences that endure
over lifetimes. Mass incarceration is thus a key determinant of racial
inequality. At the same time, high concentrations of exposure to partners,
parents, and community members who are justice-involved reinforces
inequality across geographies, groups, and generations. Thus,
while spending time in prison or jail can be a remarkably solitary
experience, the costs of mass incarceration are not simply collateral
consequences for individuals but are borne collectively , most notably
by African Americans living in acutely disadvantaged communities.
Individuals returning home from prison move to a relatively small
number of cities, counties, and even neighborhoods, which concentrates
the costs of mass incarceration (Clear 2007 ; Harding et al.
2013 ; La Vigne and Parthasarathy 2005 ; Pew Charitable Trusts 2010 ;
Sampson and Loeffler 2010 ; Visher and Travis 2011 ). In a longitudinal
study of Michigan prisoners paroled in 2003, Morenoff and Harding
( 2011 ) find that half of all returning parolees were concentrated in 12
percent of Michigan’s census tracts, and one-quarter of the parolees
were concentrated in just 2 percent of the tracts.
Sampson, Raudenbush, and Earls ( 1997 ) have developed a composite
measure of concentrated disadvantage in which a high score
represents a greater degree of disadvantage. The average score in the
communities where parolees lived was almost one standard deviation
higher than the state-wide average, suggesting that the communities
where individuals return from prison have considerably higher levels
Mass Incarceration and Racial Inequality 1171
of poverty, unemployment, and residential instability. The disadvantaged
conditions of neighborhoods to which individuals return home
from prison negatively impact labor market outcomes, including employment,
wages, and income. In their study of Michigan parolees,
Morenoff and Harding ( 2011 ) found that, at most, 20 percent of individuals
who returned from prison in the previous year earned sufficient
income in the formal labor market to meet the basic material
needs of a single person.
Given that mass incarceration is characterized by extraordinarily
high rates of criminal justice contact among impoverished black men,
and that poor blacks largely reside in racially and economically segregated
communities, the effects of mass incarceration are further concentrated
by race and ethnicity. Fagan and colleagues ( 2002 ) found that
incarceration disproportionately affects New York’s poorest neighborhoods,
and that these areas received more intense and punitive policing
and surveillance even during periods of general declines in crime.
Despite a drastic reduction in the number of those at risk of criminal
involvement in those neighborhoods, police persistently monitor
these communities, perpetuating disadvantage and harm and leading
to “the first genuine prison society of history” (Wacquant 2001 ). By removing
large numbers of young men from concentrated areas, incarceration
reduces neighborhood stability (Petersilia 2003 ). The cycling
of men between correctional facilities and communities may even
begin to trigger higher crime rates within a neighborhood, a process
Clear ( 2007 : 73) describes as “coercive mobility.” Contemporary research
suggests that high rates of incarceration increase policing and
surveillance in local areas in ways that reinforce further punishment.
Other research confirms that prison admissions predominately
come from select counties and urban neighborhoods, and that returns
from prison are concentrated in many of those very same neighborhoods.
Lynch and Sabol ( 2001 ) found that a mere 3 percent of
the census block groups in Cuyahoga County, Ohio (Cleveland) account
for more than 20 percent of the state’s prison population, with
an expected 350–700 formerly incarcerated individuals returning to
those very same block groups each year following release. Lynch and
Sabol further found that, in 1984, approximately 50 percent of prison
1172 The American Journal of Economics and Sociology
releases returned to urban counties. By 1996, this figure had increased
to 66 percent. For those rearrested after release, the trend was even
more dramatic: 42 percent returned to urban counties in 1984 and 75
percent by 1996. For neighborhoods that witness such widespread
police surveillance, criminal justice involvement has become an integral
component of the collective experience (Weaver and Lerman
2010 ). Yet, absent perceptible improvements in public safety, heightened
surveillance in already disadvantaged neighborhoods leads to
repudiation of legal authorities and a reduced willingness to comply
with the law (Tyler 2003 ; Weaver and Lerman 2010 ).
Mass incarceration produces widespread detrimental outcomes for
people who are incarcerated or face other forms of legal punishment,
their children and families, and neighborhoods and communities already
characterized by crime and disadvantage. Moreover, the legal
effects of mass incarceration produce consequences for the nation’s
representativeness and participation in democracy and society across
generations. The greater disadvantages suffered by single parents in
raising children are detailed in the literature on the collateral consequences
of mass incarceration on children and families. In addition,
children with parents involved in the criminal justice system endure
worse mental health and behavioral issues. However, studies of these
collateral effects have two drawbacks. The first is a strong male bias.
They largely focus on the ways mass incarceration perpetuates future
inequality by examining how males in the next generation become
caught up in the criminal justice system through the repeated cycle
of incarceration within their families and communities. Measuring inequality
through the perpetuation of crime and punishment, however,
largely ignores the experience of daughters of incarcerated parents
since most females never engage in crime to the extent that they
face incarceration. The second problem with research on multi-generational
impacts is that it does not adequately address how disproportionality
in surveillance, policing, prosecution, and sentencing
contribute to disproportionality in engagement with legal authorities,
quite distinctly from engagement in criminal activities.
While evidence on mass incarceration and its effects are increasingly
clear, questions about the implications of new forms of surveillance
Mass Incarceration and Racial Inequality 1173
and other types of contact with the criminal justice system remain.
In the age of big data and hyper-surveillance systems, how are the
experiences and consequences of mass incarceration related to other
ways in which at-risk groups are identified by criminal justice agencies?
Does the linkage of data between criminal and noncriminal justice
institutions, like banks and health-care systems, undermine the
economic, political, and social engagement of historically disadvantaged
and hyper-surveilled groups, especially blacks? Do new data
technologies from facial recognition to DNA archiving make some
groups uniquely vulnerable to increased scrutiny? How do new forms
of noncustodial punishment—from fines and fees to repeated court
appearances—influence economic, health, and political outcomes for
individuals and communities?
Legal and social institutions in the United States increasingly rely
on beliefs of colorblindness (avoidance of racial classification), which
ignore the underlying social and political processes that differentiate
racial groups above and beyond visual differences. Employing colorblind
policies and laws in order to achieve equality between racial
and ethnic groups denies the social, cultural, and political phenomena
attached to race, maintaining injustices for vulnerable minorities. The
American criminal justice system and its effects are not colorblind. A
wide range of factors have aligned to shape the laws, policies, and
practices currently in place that effectively sustain systematic patterns
of incarceration. In turn, those patterns concentrate both the experience
of criminal justice contact and its consequences among people
of color from a relatively small number of communities. The resulting
inequalities stray far from and undermine the stated purposes of most
laws aimed at reducing and controlling crime. Future research must
more directly consider how contemporary rhetoric surrounding colorblindness
influences our collective aspirations for equality, representativeness,
and democracy.
References
Aebi , Marcelo F. , Mélanie M. Tiago , and Christine Burkhardt. ( 2016 ). “ Survey
on Prison Populations (SPACE I-Prison Populations Survey 2015) .”
Council of Europe Annual Penal Statistics Council of Europe Annual
Penal Statistics . Strasbourg : Council of Europe .
1174 The American Journal of Economics and Sociology
Apel , Robert , and Sweeten , Gary . ( 2010 ). “ The Impact of Incarceration on
Employment During the Transition to Adulthood .” Social Problems 57 ( 3 ):
448 – 479 .
Baumgartner , Frank R. , Derek A. Epp , and Kelsey Shoub. ( 2018 ). Suspect
Citizens: What 20 Million Traffic Stops Tell Us About Policing and Race .
Cambridge : Cambridge University Press .
Beckett , Katherine , Kris Nyrop , and Lori Pfingst . ( 2005 ). “ Race, Drugs,
and Policing: Understanding Disparities in Drug Delivery Arrests .”
Criminology 44 ( 1 ): 105 – 137 .
Binswanger , Ingrid A. , Carolyn Nowels , Karen F. Corsi , Jeremy Long , Robert
E. Booth , Jean Kutner , and John F. Steiner. ( 2011 ). “‘ From the Prison Door
Right to the Sidewalk, Everything Went Downhill,’ A Qualitative Study
of the Health Experiences of Recently Released Inmates .” International
Journal of Law and Psychiatry 34 ( 4 ): 249 – 255 .
Binswanger , Ingrid A. , Marc F. Stern , Richard A. Deyo , Patrick J. Heagerty ,
Allen Cheadle , Joann G. Elmore , and Thomas D. Koepsell. ( 2007 ).
“ Release from Prison—A High Risk of Death for Former Inmates .” New
England Journal of Medicine 356 ( 2 ): 157 – 165 .
Braman , Donald. ( 2004 ). Doing Time on the Outside: Incarceration and
Family Life in Urban America . Ann Arbor, MI : University of Michigan
Press .
Brame , Robert , Michael G. Turner , Ray Paternoster , and Shawn D. Bushway .
( 2012 ). “ Cumulative Prevalence of Arrest from Ages 8 to 23 in a National
Sample .” Pediatrics 129 ( 1 ): 21 – 27 .
Brame , Robert , Shawn D. Bushway , Ray Paternoster , and Michael G. Turner.
( 2014 ). “ Demographic Patterns of Cumulative Arrest Prevalence by Ages
18 and 23 .” Crime & Delinquency 60 ( 3 ): 471 – 486 .
Burch, Traci. ( 2011 ). “ Turnout and Party Registration Among Criminal
Offenders in the 2008 General Election .” Law & Society Review 45 ( 3 ):
699 – 730 .
___ . (2013). Trading Democracy for Justice: Criminal Convictions and the
Decline of Neighborhood Political Participation. Chicago, IL: University
of Chicago Press.
Carr , Patrick J. , Laura Napolitano , and Jessica Keating . ( 2007 ). “ We Never Call
the Cops and Here Is Why: A Qualitative Examination of Legal Cynicism
in Three Philadelphia Neighborhoods .” Criminology 45 ( 2 ): 445 – 480 .
Carson , E. Ann. ( 2018 ). Prisoners in 2016 . Washington, DC : Bureau of Justice
Statistics . NCJ 251149.
Clear , Todd R. ( 2007 ). Imprisoning Communities: How Mass Incarceration
Makes Disadvantaged Neighborhoods Worse . New York : Oxford
University Press .
Comfort , Megan . ( 2007 ). “ Punishment Beyond the Legal Offender .” Annual
Review of Law and Social Science 3 : 271 – 284 .
Mass Incarceration and Racial Inequality 1175
___ . ( 2016 ). “‘ A Twenty-Hour-a-Day Job’: The Impact of Frequent Low-Level
Criminal Justice Involvement on Family Life .” ANNALS of the American
Academy of Political and Social Science 665 ( 1 ): 63 – 79 .
Coyle , Andrew , Helen Fair , Jessica Jacobson , and Roy Walmsley . ( 2016 ).
Imprisonment Worldwide: The Current Situation and an Alternative
Future . Bristol, UK : Policy Press .
Drucker , Ernest . ( 2002 ). “ Population Impact of Mass Incarceration Under
New York’s Rockefeller Drug Laws: An Analysis of Years of Life Lost .”
Journal of Urban Health Bulletin of the New York Academy of Medicine
79 ( 3 ): 434 – 435 .
Fagan , Jeffrey , and Garth Davies . ( 2000 ). “ Street Stops and Broken Windows:
Terry, Race, and Disorder in New York City .” Fordham Urban Law
Journal 28 : 457 – 504 .
Fagan , Jeffrey , Amanda Geller , Garth Davies , and Valerie West . ( 2010 ). “ Street
Stops and Broken Windows Revisited .” In Race, Ethnicity, and Policing:
New and Essential Readings , ed. Stephen K. Rice and Michael D. White ,
pp. 309 – 3 48 . New York, NY : New York University Press .
Fagan , Jeffrey , Valerie West , and Jan Hollan . ( 2002 ). “ Reciprocal Effects of
Crime and Incarceration in New York City Neighborhoods .” Fordham
Urban Law Journal 30 : 1551 – 1602 .
Flanagan , Constance . ( 2003 ). “ Developmental Roots of Political Engagement .”
Political Science & Politics 36 ( 2 ): 257 – 261 .
Foster , Holly , and Hagan , John . ( 2007 ). “ Incarceration and Intergenerational
Social Exclusion .” Social Problems 54 ( 4 ): 399 – 433 .
Garland , David. ( 2001 ). Mass Imprisonment: Social Causes and Consequences .
Thousand Oaks, CA : Sage .
Geller , Amanda , Irwin Garfinkel , and Bruce Western . ( 2011 ). “ Parental
Incarceration and Support for Children in Fragile Families .” Demography
48 ( 1 ): 25 – 47 .
Gerber , Alan S. , Gregroy A. Huber , Marc Meredith , Daniel R. Biggers , and
David J. Hendry. ( 2017 ). “ Does Incarceration Reduce Voting? Evidence
About the Political Consequences of Spending Time in Prison .” Journal
of Politics 79 ( 4 ): 1130 – 1146 .
Grinstead , Olga , Bonnie Faigeles , Carrie Bancroft , and Barry Zack . ( 2001 ).
“ The Financial Cost of Maintaining Relationships with Incarcerated
African American Men:
Are you busy and do not have time to handle your assignment? Are you scared that your paper will not make the grade? Do you have responsibilities that may hinder you from turning in your assignment on time? Are you tired and can barely handle your assignment? Are your grades inconsistent?
Whichever your reason is, it is valid! You can get professional academic help from our service at affordable rates. We have a team of professional academic writers who can handle all your assignments.
Students barely have time to read. We got you! Have your literature essay or book review written without having the hassle of reading the book. You can get your literature paper custom-written for you by our literature specialists.
Do you struggle with finance? No need to torture yourself if finance is not your cup of tea. You can order your finance paper from our academic writing service and get 100% original work from competent finance experts.
Computer science is a tough subject. Fortunately, our computer science experts are up to the match. No need to stress and have sleepless nights. Our academic writers will tackle all your computer science assignments and deliver them on time. Let us handle all your python, java, ruby, JavaScript, php , C+ assignments!
While psychology may be an interesting subject, you may lack sufficient time to handle your assignments. Don’t despair; by using our academic writing service, you can be assured of perfect grades. Moreover, your grades will be consistent.
Engineering is quite a demanding subject. Students face a lot of pressure and barely have enough time to do what they love to do. Our academic writing service got you covered! Our engineering specialists follow the paper instructions and ensure timely delivery of the paper.
In the nursing course, you may have difficulties with literature reviews, annotated bibliographies, critical essays, and other assignments. Our nursing assignment writers will offer you professional nursing paper help at low prices.
Truth be told, sociology papers can be quite exhausting. Our academic writing service relieves you of fatigue, pressure, and stress. You can relax and have peace of mind as our academic writers handle your sociology assignment.
We take pride in having some of the best business writers in the industry. Our business writers have a lot of experience in the field. They are reliable, and you can be assured of a high-grade paper. They are able to handle business papers of any subject, length, deadline, and difficulty!
We boast of having some of the most experienced statistics experts in the industry. Our statistics experts have diverse skills, expertise, and knowledge to handle any kind of assignment. They have access to all kinds of software to get your assignment done.
Writing a law essay may prove to be an insurmountable obstacle, especially when you need to know the peculiarities of the legislative framework. Take advantage of our top-notch law specialists and get superb grades and 100% satisfaction.
We have highlighted some of the most popular subjects we handle above. Those are just a tip of the iceberg. We deal in all academic disciplines since our writers are as diverse. They have been drawn from across all disciplines, and orders are assigned to those writers believed to be the best in the field. In a nutshell, there is no task we cannot handle; all you need to do is place your order with us. As long as your instructions are clear, just trust we shall deliver irrespective of the discipline.
Our essay writers are graduates with bachelor's, masters, Ph.D., and doctorate degrees in various subjects. The minimum requirement to be an essay writer with our essay writing service is to have a college degree. All our academic writers have a minimum of two years of academic writing. We have a stringent recruitment process to ensure that we get only the most competent essay writers in the industry. We also ensure that the writers are handsomely compensated for their value. The majority of our writers are native English speakers. As such, the fluency of language and grammar is impeccable.
There is a very low likelihood that you won’t like the paper.
Not at all. All papers are written from scratch. There is no way your tutor or instructor will realize that you did not write the paper yourself. In fact, we recommend using our assignment help services for consistent results.
We check all papers for plagiarism before we submit them. We use powerful plagiarism checking software such as SafeAssign, LopesWrite, and Turnitin. We also upload the plagiarism report so that you can review it. We understand that plagiarism is academic suicide. We would not take the risk of submitting plagiarized work and jeopardize your academic journey. Furthermore, we do not sell or use prewritten papers, and each paper is written from scratch.
You determine when you get the paper by setting the deadline when placing the order. All papers are delivered within the deadline. We are well aware that we operate in a time-sensitive industry. As such, we have laid out strategies to ensure that the client receives the paper on time and they never miss the deadline. We understand that papers that are submitted late have some points deducted. We do not want you to miss any points due to late submission. We work on beating deadlines by huge margins in order to ensure that you have ample time to review the paper before you submit it.
We have a privacy and confidentiality policy that guides our work. We NEVER share any customer information with third parties. Noone will ever know that you used our assignment help services. It’s only between you and us. We are bound by our policies to protect the customer’s identity and information. All your information, such as your names, phone number, email, order information, and so on, are protected. We have robust security systems that ensure that your data is protected. Hacking our systems is close to impossible, and it has never happened.
You fill all the paper instructions in the order form. Make sure you include all the helpful materials so that our academic writers can deliver the perfect paper. It will also help to eliminate unnecessary revisions.
Proceed to pay for the paper so that it can be assigned to one of our expert academic writers. The paper subject is matched with the writer’s area of specialization.
You communicate with the writer and know about the progress of the paper. The client can ask the writer for drafts of the paper. The client can upload extra material and include additional instructions from the lecturer. Receive a paper.
The paper is sent to your email and uploaded to your personal account. You also get a plagiarism report attached to your paper.
GET A PERFECT SCORE!!! 
Delivering a high-quality product at a reasonable price is not enough anymore.
That’s why we have developed 5 beneficial guarantees that will make your experience with our service enjoyable, easy, and safe.
You have to be 100% sure of the quality of your product to give a money-back guarantee. This describes us perfectly. Make sure that this guarantee is totally transparent.
Read moreEach paper is composed from scratch, according to your instructions. It is then checked by our plagiarism-detection software. There is no gap where plagiarism could squeeze in.
Read moreThanks to our free revisions, there is no way for you to be unsatisfied. We will work on your paper until you are completely happy with the result.
Read moreYour email is safe, as we store it according to international data protection rules. Your bank details are secure, as we use only reliable payment systems.
Read moreBy sending us your money, you buy the service we provide. Check out our terms and conditions if you prefer business talks to be laid out in official language.
Read more