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The Golden Anniversary of Mass Incarceration in America
In: The prison journal: the official publication of the Pennsylvania Prison Society, Volume 104, Issue 3, p. 271-295
ISSN: 1552-7522
The year 2023 marked the 50th anniversary of mass incarceration in the United States. For six decades, the U.S. incarceration rate has been near the top among all countries worldwide. In five major sections, this article offers a brief retrospective on mass incarceration. The first defines the nature of prison sentences. The second describes the current prison population's characteristics. The third examines the growth of the prison population, highlighting politically motivated policies and laws. The fourth provides a reckoning of the collateral damage caused by mass incarceration. The fifth and final section considers strategies to reduce imprisonment and its attendant harms.
Harry K. Wexler: An Unwavering Voice for Addiction Recovery and Criminal Justice Reform
In: The prison journal: the official publication of the Pennsylvania Prison Society, Volume 97, Issue 6, p. 671-673
ISSN: 1552-7522
Jails in the United States: The "Old-New" Frontier in American Corrections
In: The prison journal: the official publication of the Pennsylvania Prison Society, Volume 96, Issue 1, p. 3-9
ISSN: 1552-7522
In the United States, jails confine large numbers of people each day and process nearly 12 million admissions each year. The estimated average daily population in American jails, as of midyear 2014, was 744,600. Jail overcrowding has continued to remain a problem at the onset of the new millennium, especially in large jurisdictions. More stringent drug and crime control policies and enforcement strategies led to the precipitous rise in the jail population. Jails are a critical resource for the criminal justice system and the larger community. As local institutions, jails often serve the medical and behavioral healthcare needs of the residents in a jurisdiction and are home to the most impoverished and disenfranchised members of the community: the unemployed, the homeless, and those with addiction, and mental illness. Jails have also become increasingly more populated by women. This special issue of The Prison Journal was compiled to focus further attention on servicing and managing the jail detainee population and provides an in-depth look at jails through a variety of lenses. The issue includes articles about the proper role of the jail as a venue for delivering behavioral healthcare and other services and the jail reentry process in rural jurisdictions. Other articles explore a jail reentry program for detainees with substance use disorders; the problems and challenges of female detainees; the nature and extent of trauma among women in a large urban jail; the use and abuse of solitary confinement in jails; and the mentally ill in jails.
People With Serious Mental Illness in the Criminal Justice System: Causes, Consequences, and Correctives
In: The prison journal: the official publication of the Pennsylvania Prison Society, Volume 91, Issue 3_suppl, p. 66S-86S
ISSN: 1552-7522
This article examines the rising number of people with serious mental illness (PSMI) in the criminal justice system and suggests remedies for improving care and services for this troubled population. Of note, mental illness is not the primary cause of criminal behavior nor is deinstitutionalization principally responsible for the disproportionate criminal justice system representation of PSMI. Rather, harsh crime control policies and draconian drug laws, in particular, account for the apparently large numbers of PSMI who are arrested and incarcerated. Recommendations are offered for service providers to focus on the amelioration of criminogenic factors, not simply on treating mental illness among PSMI in the criminal justice system. Furthermore, larger investments should be made in treating co-occurring disorders and funding aftercare services, which are essential to maintaining treatment gains and sustaining recovery.
The Rotten Barrel Spoils the Apples: How Situational Factors Contribute to Detention Officer Abuse Toward Inmates
In: The prison journal: the official publication of the Pennsylvania Prison Society, Volume 89, Issue 1_suppl, p. 70S-80S
ISSN: 1552-7522
This article reviews The Lucifer Effect, a fascinating and incisive book by Phillip Zimbardo, a professor emeritus at Stanford University. The book is a multilayered and compelling treatise about the malleability of human nature and the utter rapidity with which it can change from civility to malevolence. Lying at the heart of the volume is a painstaking chronology of the Stanford Prison Experiment, a case study that illustrates the overriding "power of the situation" to transform "good citizens" into "evil doers." The book's most valuable contributions are the parallels Zimbardo draws between the experiment and the Abu Ghraib atrocities. This underscore the timelessness of the insights generated in his laboratory that went unheeded in Iraq because of systemic and situational forces that compelled young men and women of the military to engage in wanton acts of abuse and torture. The author extracts from The Lucifer Effect seven enduring lessons for America's prison administrators.
Book Review: Prison Madness: The Mental Health Crisis Behind Bars and What We Must Do About It
In: The prison journal: the official publication of the Pennsylvania Prison Society, Volume 82, Issue 2, p. 285-287
ISSN: 1552-7522
Crime and Punishment in America
In: The annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Volume 573, p. 198-199
ISSN: 0002-7162
Book Department
In: The annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Volume 540, Issue 1, p. 183-184
ISSN: 1552-3349
Sociology
In: The annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Volume 541, Issue 1, p. 208-210
ISSN: 1552-3349
Brutal Need: Lawyers and the Welfare Rights Movement, 1960-1973
In: The annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Volume 539, p. 211-212
ISSN: 0002-7162
The Dilemma of American Social Welfare
In: The annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Volume 540, p. 183-184
ISSN: 0002-7162
A New Species of Trouble: Explorations in Disaster, Trauma, and Community
In: The annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Volume 541, p. 208-210
ISSN: 0002-7162
Sociology
In: The annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Volume 533, Issue 1, p. 213-215
ISSN: 1552-3349