Daedalus · 2010 · 512 citations · 0 references
Social SciencesDemographySociologyCrimeSocial DemographySocial InequalityCriminal JusticeInequalitySocial ExclusionSocial InclusionSocial JusticeSpatial SegregationClass InequalityIncarcerated PopulationsIncarceration RatesRacial Minority ExperiencesShared ExperienceSocial Group CompositionSocial ImpactStructural Class Inequality
Mass incarceration has created a new marginalized group, deepening social inequality that is invisible, cumulative, intergenerational, linked to low education, disrupted community and family ties, and concentrated in specific neighborhoods. The prison boom has disproportionately increased incarceration among the least educated, widening class inequality and contracting citizenship for marginalized populations.
America's prisons and jails have produced a new social group, a group of social outcasts who are joined by the shared experience of incarceration, crime, poverty, racial minority, and low education. The social inequality produced by mass incarceration is sizable and enduring for three main reasons: it is invisible, it is cumulative, and it is intergenerational. The social impact of mass incarceration lies in the gross asymmetry of community and family attachment. Class inequalities in incarceration are reflected in the very low educational level of those in prison and jail. The significant growth of incarceration rates among the least educated reflects increasing class inequality in incarceration through the period of the prison boom. The redrawing of American social inequality by mass incarceration amounts to a contraction of citizenship—a contraction of that population that enjoys, in T. H. Marshall's words, full membership in society. The demographic concentration of incarceration accompanies spatial concentration.