US penal-reform catalysts,drivers,and prospects

Abstract

Most recent analyses of US penality describe and explain the exceptional harshening of punishment over the previous three decades. This article challenges and qualifies these accounts by identifying 10 cultural, moral, and practical drivers of a bipartisan reconsideration of the discourses and policies responsible for mass incarceration. These penal-reform catalysts and drivers include: (1) the crime decline; (2) the Great Recession; (3) the prisoner-reentry movement and attendant changes in the moral status of prisoners; (4) apparent shifts in public attitudes about punishment; (5) ‘punitive saturation’ and the cyclical nature of penal thinking and policy; (6) changing dominant conceptions of the criminal offender; (7) the return of human dignity to US jurisprudence; (8) the ideational influence of Christian reformers who assail the morality of excessive punishment; (9) the conservative ‘Right on Crime’ initiative that promotes a range of reforms formerly associated with the Left; and (10) the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), whose model legislation once drove mass incarceration but now aims to curtail it. The article also invites theoretical analysis of whether ongoing shifts represent a structural reordering of the penal field akin to the punitive turn or merely a set of benevolent tendencies within the same carceral paradigm.

Keywords

mass incarceration penality penal reform prisoner reentry rehabilitation

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Alexander

(2010) The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, New York: The New Press.

Allen

(1981) The Decline of the Rehabilitative Ideal: Penal Policy and Social Purpose, New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

American Association for Justice (2010) ALEC: Ghostwriting the law for corporate America. Available at: http://www.justice.org/cps/rde/xbcr/justice/ALEC_Report.pdf.

American Legislative Exchange Council (2014a) Justice Performance Project. Available at: http://www.alec.org/task-forces/justice-performance-project/.

American Legislative Exchange Council (2014b) Recidivism Reduction Act. Available at: http://www.alec.org/model-legislation/recidivism-reduction-act/.

American Legislative Exchange Council (2014c) Swift and Certain Sanctions Act. Available at: http://www.alec.org/model-legislation/swift-and-certain-sanctions-act/.

Anderson

(1995) Crime and the Politics of Hysteria: How the Willie Horton Story Changed American Justice, New York: Times Books.

Aos

Miller

Drake

(2006) Evidence-Based Adult Corrections Programs: What Works and What Does Not, Olympia, WA: Washington State Institute for Public Policy.

Applegate

Cullen

Fisher

(1997) Public support for correctional treatment: The continuing appeal of the rehabilitative ideal. The Prison Journal 77(3): 237–258.

10.

Apuzzo M (2014) Holder endorses proposal to reduce drug sentences in latest sign of shift. The New York Times, 13 March. Available at: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/14/us/politics/holder-endorses-proposal-to-reduce-drug-sentences.html?hp&_r=0.

11.

Austin

Clear

Duster

(2007) Unlocking America: Why and How to Reduce America’s Prison Population, Washington, DC: The JFA Institute.

12.

Aviram

(2010) Humonetarianism: The new correctional discourse of scarcity. Hastings Race & Poverty Law Journal 7: 1–52.

13.

Barker

(2009) The Politics of Imprisonment: How the Democratic Process Shapes the Way America Punishes Offenders, New York: Oxford University Press.

14.

Bauman

(1989/2000) Modernity and the Holocaust, Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.

15.

Baumer

Wolff

(2014) Evaluating contemporary crime drop(s) in America, New York City, and many other places. Justice Quarterly 31(1): 5–38.

16.

BBC News (2014) Why Texas is closing prisons in favour of rehab. Available at: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-30275026.

17.

Bernard

Kurlychek

(2010) The Cycle of Juvenile Justice, New York: Oxford University Press.

18.

Biewen J (2002) Corrections, Inc. [podcast]. American RadioWorks, April. Available at: http://www.americanradioworks.org/features/corrections/index.html.

19.

Booker C (2014a) Tell members of Congress our justice system should rehabilitate, not just incarcerate. Available at: http://act.corybooker.com/page/s/criminal-justice-reform?source=homepage.

20.

Booker C (2014b) U.S. Senators Booker and Paul introduce legislation calling for criminal justice reform [press release]. 8 July. Available at: http://www.booker.senate.gov/?p=press_release&id=100.

21.

Brown

Schwartz

Boseley

(2012) The promise of justice reinvestment. Alternative Law Journal 37(2): 96–102.

22.

Brown

(2013) Foreclosing on incarceration? State correctional policy enactments and the Great Recession. Criminal Justice Policy Review 24(3): 317–337.

23.

Bush GW (2004) Text of President Bush's 2004 State of the Union address, The Washington Post, 20 January 2004. Retrieved from: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/transcripts/bushtext_012004.html.

24.

CalRealignment.org (2011) About public safety realignment. Available at: http://www.safeandjust.org/CalRealignment/About-Realignment.

25.

Carson

(2014) Prisoners in 2013, Washington, DC: US Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics.

26.

Carson

Golinelli

(2013) Prisoners in 2012: Trends in Admissions and Releases, 1991–2012, Washington, DC: US Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics.

27.

Cavadino

Dignan

(2006) Penal Systems: A Comparative Approach, London: SAGE.

28.

Charles Koch Institute (2014) Rule of law: How the criminal justice system impacts well-being. Available at: http://charleskochinstitute.org/ruleoflaw/.

29.

Clear

(2010) Policy and evidence: The challenge to the American Society of Criminology: 2009 presidential address to the American Society of Criminology. Criminology 48(1): 1–25.

30.

Clear

Austin

(2009) Reducing mass incarceration: Implications of the iron law of prison populations. Harvard Law & Policy Review 3: 307–324.

31.

Clear

Frost

(2013) The Punishment Imperative: The Rise and Failure of Mass Incarceration in America, New York: New York University Press.

32.

Congress.gov (2013) S.619 – Justice Safety Valve Act of 2013. Available at: https://beta.congress.gov/bill/113th-congress/senate-bill/619/text.

33.

Council of State Governments Justice Center (2012) The Second Chance Act fact sheet. Available at: http://www.reentrypolicy.org/government_affairs/second_chance_act.

34.

Council of State Governments Justice Center (2015) Ban the box: U.S. cities, counties, and states adopt fair hiring policies to reduce unfair barriers to employment of people with criminal records. Available at: http://csgjusticecenter.org/reentry/publications/ban-the-box-u-s-cities-counties-and-states-adopt-fair-hiring-policies-to-reduce-unfair-barriers-to-employment-of-people-with-criminal-records/.

35.

Cullen

Pealer

Fisher

(2002) Public support for correctional rehabilitation in America: Change or consistency? In: Roberts

Hough

(eds) Changing Attitudes to Punishment: Public Opinion, Crime and Justice., Cullompton: Willan, pp. 128–147.

36.

Dagan D and Teles SM (2012) The conservative war on prisons. The Washington Monthly, November/December. Available at: http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/magazine/novemberdecember_2012/features/the_conservative_war_on_prison041104.php?page=all.

37.

Democrats.org (2012) 2012 Democratic national platform: Moving American forward. Available at: http://www.democrats.org/democratic-national-platform.

38.

DeRoche C (2014) A really big first for us! Email, 4 June, justicefellowship@pfm.org.

39.

Dunbar

Langdon

(1998) Tough Justice: Sentencing and Penal Policies in the 1990s, London: Blackstone Press.

40.

Eilperin J (2015) Obama commutes sentences of 22 drug offenders. Washington Post, 31 March. Available at: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-politics/wp/2015/03/31/obama-commutes-sentences-of-22-drug-offenders/.

41.

Federal Bureau of Prisons (2014) Inmate statistics. Available at: http://www.bop.gov/about/statistics/statistics_inmate_offenses.jsp.

42.

Flatow N (2013) Reversing course, ALEC supports reform of mandatory minimum sentences. ThinkProgress, 6 August. Available at: http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2013/08/06/2416251/even-alec-may-now-support-reform-of-mandatory-minimum-sentences/.

43.

Forman

(2012) Racial critiques of mass incarceration: Beyond the new Jim Crow. New York University Law Review 87: 101–146.

44.

Gallup (2014) Most important problem. Available at: http://www.gallup.com/poll/1675/most-important-problem.aspx.

45.

Garland

(2001) The Culture of Control: Crime and Social Order in Contemporary Society, Oxford: Clarendon Press.

46.

Giddens

(1990) The Consequences of Modernity, Cambridge: Polity.

47.

Gingrich N and Jones V (2014) Prison system is failing America. CNN, 22 May. Available at: http://www.cnn.com/2014/05/21/opinion/gingrich-jones-prison-system-fails-america/.

48.

Gingrich N and Nolan P (2011) Prison reform: A smart way for states to save money and lives. Washington Post, 7 January. Available at: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/06/AR2011010604386.html.

49.

Gingrich N and Nolan P (2014) An opening for bipartisanship on prison reform. The Wall Street Journal, 14 July. Available at: http://online.wsj.com/articles/newt-gingrich-and-pat-nolan-an-opening-for-bipartisanship-on-prison-reform-1405380090.

50.

Glaze

Parks

(2012) Correctional Populations in the United States, 2011, Washington, DC: Bureau of Justice Statistics, US Department of Justice.

51.

GOP.com (2012) 2012 Republican platform: We believe in America. Available at: http://www.gop.com/2012-republican-platform_renewing/ – Item18.

52.

Gottschalk

(2010) Cell blocks and red ink: Mass incarceration, the Great Recession and penal reform. Daedalus. Summer: 62–73.

53.

Gottschalk

(2015) Caught: The Prison State and the Lockdown of American Politics, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

54.

Green

(2008) When Children Kill Children: Penal Populism and Political Culture, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

55.

Green

(2009) Feeding wolves: Punitiveness and culture. European Journal on Criminology 6(6): 517–536.

56.

Green

(2013) Penal optimism and second chances: The legacies of American Protestantism and the prospects for penal reform. Punishment & Society 15(2): 123–146.

57.

Green

(2015) The re-humanization of the incarcerated Other: Bureaucracy, distantiation, and American mass incarceration. In: Eriksson

(eds) Punishing the Other, London: Routledge, pp. 87–130.

58.

Guerino

Harrison

Sabol

(2011) Prisoners in 2010, Washington, DC: US Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics.

59.

Henry

(2011) The jurisprudence of dignity. University of Pennsylvania Law Review 160: 169–233.

60.

Hetey

Eberhardt

(2014) Racial disparities in incarceration increase acceptance of punitive policies. Psychological Science 25(10): 1949–1954.

61.

Hood

(1974) Criminology and penal change: A case study of the nature and impact of some recent advice to governments. In: Hood

(eds) Crime, Criminology and Public Policy: Essays in Honour of Sir Leon Radzinowicz, London: Heineman, pp. 375–417.

62.

International Centre for Prison Studies (2014a) Highest to lowest: Prison population rate. Available at: http://www.prisonstudies.org/highest-to-lowest/prison_population_rate?field_region_taxonomy_tid=14.

63.

International Centre for Prison Studies (2014b) World prison brief: United States of America. Available at: http://www.prisonstudies.org/country/united-states-america.

64.

Kilgore J (2014) The persistence of mass incarceration: New stats show we have not turned the corner. Available at: http://www.counterpunch.org/2014/09/23/the-persistence-of-mass-incarceration/.

65.

King

(1998) Prisons. In: Tonry

(eds) The Handbook of Crime and Punishment, New York: Oxford University Press, pp. 589–625.

66.

Krisberg

Marchionna

(2006) Attitudes of US Voters toward Prisoner Rehabilitation and Reentry Policies, Washington, DC: National Council on Crime and Delinquency.

67.

LaVigne

Bieler

Cramer

(2014) Justice Reinvestment Initiative state assessment report, Washington, DC: Urban Institute & Bureau of Justice Assistance.

68.

Lindsay

(2007) Faith in the Halls of Power: How Evangelicals Joined the American Elite, New York: Oxford University Press.

69.

Loader

(2010) For penal moderation: Notes towards a public philosophy of punishment. Theoretical Criminology 14(3): 349–367.

70.

Loseke

(2003) Thinking about Social Problems: An Introduction to Constructionist Perspectives, New York: Aldine de Gruyter.

71.

Lucken

(2011) Leaving mass incarceration: The ways and means of penal change. Criminology & Public Policy 10(3): 707–714.

72.

Marsden

(2001) Religion and American Culture, Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/Thomson.

73.

Martinson

(1974) What works? Questions and answers about prison reform. Public Interest 35: 22–54.

74.

Matthews

(2014) Realist Criminoogy, London: Palgrave Macmillan.

75.

Miller

(2014) Devolving the carceral state: Race, prisoner reentry, and the micro-politics of urban poverty management. Punishment & Society 16(3): 305–335.

76.

Morone

(2003) Hellfire Nation: The Politics of Sin in American History, New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

77.

Nellis

(2013) Dim prospects: Humanistic values and the fate of community justice. In: Winstone

Pakes

(eds) Community Justice: Issues for Probation and Criminal Justice, Cullompton: Willan, pp. 33–51.

78.

Newburn

Jones

(2005) Symbolic politics and penal populism: The long shadow of Willie Horton. Crime, Media, Culture 1(1): 72–87.

79.

Neyfakh L (2015) Cory Booker and Newt Gingrich want to redefine what is considered a ‘violent’ crime. Slate. Available at: http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2015/03/26/bipartisan_summit_on_criminal_justice_reform_cory_booker_wants_to_redefine.html.

80.

Nuzzi O (2014) Prison reform is bigger in Texas. The Daily Beast, 12 April. Available at: http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/04/12/prison-reform-is-bigger-in-texas.html.

81.

Peter D Hart Research Associates (2002) Changing public attitudes toward the criminal justice system: Summary of findings. Available at: http://www.soros.org/initiatives/usprograms/focus/justice/articles_publications/publications/hartpoll_20020201.

82.

Pew Center on the States (2010) Prison count 2010: Errata. Available at: http://www.pewcenteronthestates.org.

83.

Pew Center on the States (2012) Time Served: The High Cost, Low Return of Longer Prison Terms, Washington, DC: The Pew Charitable Trusts.

84.

Pew Center on the States (2015) Most states cut imprisonment and crime. Available at: http://www.pewtrusts.org/en/multimedia/data-visualizations/2014/imprisonment-and-crime.

85.

Pfaff

(2013) Waylaid by a metaphor: A deeply problematic account of prison growth. Michigan Law Review 111: 1087–1110.

86.

Phelps

(2011) Rehabilitation in the punitive era: The gap between rhetoric and reality in U.S. prison programs. Law & Society Review 45(1): 33–68.

87.

Porter

(2012) On the Chopping Block 2012: State Prison Closings, Washington, DC: The Sentencing Project.

88.

Reddy

Levin

(2014) Right on crime: A return to first principles for American conservatives. Texas Review of Law & Politics 18: 231–254.

89.

Right on Crime (2014a) Priority issues. Available at: http://www.rightoncrime.com/priority-issues/.

90.

Right on Crime (2014b) Right on Crime leadership summit 2014. Email, 4 June, update@texaspolicy.com.

91.

Right on Crime (2014c) Right on Crime signatories. Available at: http://www.rightoncrime.com/the-conservative-case-for-reform/right-on-crime-signatories/.

92.

Right on Crime (2014d) State initiatives: Texas. Available at: http://www.rightoncrime.com/reform-in-action/state-initiatives/texas/.

93.

Roberts

Stalans

Indermaur

(2003) Penal Populism and Public Opinion: Lessons from Five Countries, New York: Oxford University Press.

94.

Rowan

(2012) Democracy and punishment: A radical view. Theoretical Criminology 16(1): 43–62.

95.

Ruck

(1951) Paterson on Prisons: Being the Collected Papers of Sir Alexander Paterson, London: Frederick Muller.

96.

Sasson

(1995) Crime Talk: How Citizens Construct a Social Problem, New York: Aldine de Gruyter.

97.

Shavin N (2015) A Republican governor is leading the country’s most successful prison reform. The New Republic. Available at: http://www.newrepublic.com/article/121425/gop-governor-nathan-deal-leading-us-prison-reform.

98.

Simon

(1997) Governing through crime. In: Friedman

Fisher

(eds) The Crime Conundrum, New York: Westview Press, pp. 171–189.

99.

Simon

(2007) Governing through Crime: How the War on Crime Transformed American Democracy and Created a Culture of Fear, New York: Oxford University Press.

100.

Simon

(2014) Mass Incarceration on Trial: A Remarkable Court Decision and the Future of Prisons in America, New York: The New Press.

101.

Snow

Benford

(1988) Ideology, frame resonance, and participant mobilization. International Social Movement Research 1: 197–218.

102.

Subramanian

Shames

(2013) Sentencing and Prison Practices in Germany and the Netherlands: Implications for the United States, New York: Vera Institute of Justice.

103.

Subramanian

Moreno

Broomhead

(2014) Recalibrating Justice: A Review of 2013 State Sentencing and Corrections Trends, New York: Vera Institute of Justice.

104.

The Sentencing Project (2013) Report of The Sentencing Project to the United Nations Human Rights Committee regarding racial disparities in the United States criminal justice system, Washington, DC: The Sentencing Project.

105.

Thomas

(1928) The Child in America: Behavior Problems and Programs, New York: Knopf.

106.

Tonry

(1995) Malign Neglect: Race, Crime, and Punishment in America, New York: Oxford University Press.

107.

Tonry

(2004a) Punishment and Politics: Evidence and Emulation in the Making of English Crime Control Policy, Cullompton: Willan.

108.

Tonry

(2004b) Thinking about Crime: Sense and Sensibility in American Penal Culture, New York: Oxford University Press.

109.

Tonry

(2011a) Explanations of American punishment policies: A national history. Punishment & Society 11(3): 377–394.

110.

Tonry

(2011b) Making peace, not a desert: Penal reform should be about values not justice reinvestment. Criminology & Public Policy 10(3): 637–649.

111.

Tonry

Green

(2003) Criminology and public policy in the USA and UK. In: Zedner

Ashworth

(eds) The Criminological Foundations of Penal Policy: Essays in Honour of Roger Hood, Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 485–525.

112.

Travis

(2005) But They All Come Back: Facing the Challenges of Prisoner Reentry, Baltimore, MD: Urban Institute Press.

113.

Tucker

Cadora

(2003) Justice reinvestment. Ideas for an Open Society 3(3): 2–5.

114.

Van Zyl Smit

Snacken

(2009) Principles of European Prison Law and Policy: Penology and Human Rights, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

115.

Von Hirsch

(1976) Doing Justice: The Choice of Punishments, New York: Hill & Wang.

116.

Wacquant

(2004) Punishing the Poor: The Neoliberal Government of Social Insecurity, Durham, NC: Duke University Press.

117.

Western

(2007) Punishment and Inequality in America, New York: Russell Sage Foundation.

118.

Whitman

(2003) Harsh Justice: Criminal Punishment and the Widening Divide between America and Europe, New York: Oxford University Press.

119.

Wilson

(1975/1985) Thinking about Crime, New York: Vintage.

120.

www.controldocumentary.com www.controldocumentary.com (n.d.) Mapping mass incarceration: A conversation with Eric Cadora. Available at: http://www.controldocumentary.com/2011/08/mapping-mass-incarceration-a-conversation-with-eric-cadora/.

121.

Young

(1999) The Exclusive Society: Social Exclusion, Crime and Difference in Late Modernity, London: SAGE.

122.

Young

(2007) The Vertigo of Late Modernity, London: SAGE.

123.

Zaller

(1992) The Nature and Origins of Mass Opinion, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

124.

Zimring

(2008) The Great American Crime Decline, New York: Oxford University Press.

125.

Zimring FE and Johnson DT (2006) Public opinion and the governance of punishment in democratic political systems. Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 605(1): 266–280.