Mass Incarceration Research Articles

National Survey of Oncologists' Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practice Behaviors: Caring for Cancer Patients Experiencing Incarceration.

Cancer is the leading cause of illness-related death in state prisons in the United States. The experiences of physicians providing oncological care to individuals experiencing incarceration are underexplored. The study aims were to evaluate knowledge, attitudes, and practices of oncologists caring for cancer patients who are incarcerated. An online survey was distributed to a random sample of 150 oncologists from the American Society of Clinical Oncology and the American Society for Radiation Oncology from July 2020 to December 2021. Statistical analyses included two proportion Z-test, Fisher's exact test, Kruskal-Wallis test, and Cramer's V to estimate factors associated with attitudes and barriers to care. Of the 55 respondents (36.7% response rate), 21 were medical oncologists and 34 were radiation oncologists. Academic center oncologists were more likely to report caring for incarcerated patients than community or private practice oncologists (p = .04). Most (53%) incorrectly reported "heart disease" as the leading cause of death, as opposed to "cancer" (15% identified correctly). Oncologists practicing at both academic and community centers were more likely to report care coordination barriers than oncologists at academic or community centers (p < .01). We identified potential barriers in caring for incarcerated cancer patients. Future studies should explore ways to improve care coordination between oncology teams and prisons.

United States Healthcare System

United States Healthcare System

No Room to Fall: Criminal Justice Contact and Neighborhood Disadvantage

Abstract Neighborhoods across the United States are shaped by the criminal justice system and socioeconomic inequality. This article examines whether multiple forms of criminal justice contact affect neighborhood attainment for a cohort of young adults coming of age in the era of mass incarceration. Using the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, 1997 cohort, and census data, I analyze neighborhood conditions before and after contact with the criminal justice system. Conviction is a critical experience in the life course. Having a household member incarcerated is associated with moving to a worse neighborhood only for White young adults. I contextualize these findings in the literature on the cumulative disadvantages faced by the justice-involved population and the complexities of identifying causal effects for this population. For many, incarceration represents a late stage of criminal justice contact, at which point there is no room to fall. Disentangling the web of disadvantage that follows criminal justice contact is crucial as the effects of the era of mass incarceration continue to accumulate. Locational attainment contextualized within the life course must be central to understanding how the legal system creates and reproduces disadvantage.

Reconceiving Christianity and the Modern Prison: On Evangelicalism’s Eugenic Logic and Mass Incarceration

Abstract In the aftermath of World War II, eugenics and the pseudoscientific base used to justify its practices are generally understood to have phased off the scene. If, however, eugenics never actually disappeared but has been persistent, and in turn becomes one of the best explanations for mass incarceration today, what role did Christianity—especially Evangelicalism—play in this unprecedented moment of imprisonment? Building on legal scholarship identifying the significant role of eugenic philosophy that manifests in penal policy and ongoing phenomena into the early twenty-first century, this article examines key figures in the backdrop of eugenics’ particular early developments, and leading figures—namely, Billy Graham and Prison Fellowship’s Chuck Colson—whose ministries operated in close proximity to the prison during the latter twentieth century and especially over the past fifty years as incarceration rates skyrocketed. After examining several important theological tenets reflected within Evangelicalism that are compatible with eugenic logic, a critical approach is developed drawing from more robust theological considerations that if appropriated earlier might have found evangelicals resisting the mass incarceration building efforts rather than supporting them.

Patchwork Protection: The Politics of Prisoners’ Rights Accountability in the United States

In recent years US prisons have failed to meet legally required minimum standards of care and protection of incarcerated people. Explanations for the failure to protect prisoners in the United States focus on the effects of the Prison Litigation Reform Act (PLRA) and lack of adequate external oversight. However, very little scholarship empirically examines how different systems of accountability for prisoners’ rights work (or do not work) together. In this article, we introduce an accountability framework that helps us examine the prisoners’ rights “accountability environment” in the United States. We then compare two post-PLRA case studies of failure to protect incarcerated women from sexual assault in two different states. We find that the prisoners’ rights accountability environment is a patchwork of legal, bureaucratic, professional, and political systems. The patchwork accountability environment consists of a web of hierarchical and interdependent relationships that constrain or enable accountability. We argue that ultimately the effectiveness of prisoners’ rights accountability environments depends on whether protecting prisoners’ rights aligns with the priorities of dominant political officials. Our argument has implications for efforts to improve prison conditions and incarcerated people’s well-being.

Examining Mass Incarceration: Rachel Kushner’s The Mars Room

Rachel Kushner’s 2018 novel The Mars Room examines the nature and causes of mass incarceration in the United States. The novel follows American prison literature conventions in showing what prisons conceal, and departs from them by not having its characters undergo personal transformations or speak for broader communities. Most distinctively it employs several narrative voices, which facilitates a multidimensional analysis of mass incarceration, and by distancing the reader from the engaging main character, helps Kushner deliver a structural critique. Beyond immediate factors like harsher sentencing laws and plea bargaining lie poverty and abuse that track mostly lower-class people into prison. The violence Kushner depicts saturating American society suggests the difficulty of ending mass incarceration.

The Deleterious Health Consequences of COVID in United States Prisons

The Deleterious Health Consequences of COVID in United States Prisons

Repression breeds resistance: A call for a methodology of radical solidarity and love to respond to the prison industrial complex and academia's eugenic tendencies

This collaborative autoethnographic article traces psychology's complicity in systems of oppression while highlighting pathways toward liberation. An expression and embodiment of radical solidarity, this article is the product of a research collaboration between an incarcerated justice advocate and a critical psychologist. Critical autoethnographic methods are leaned on to lift experiences of prison as an oppressive institution and illuminate forms of resistance. We strategically and deliberately co-created this methodological approach to joyfully render prison walls metaphorically porous, to seep through surveillance mechanisms (both within the prison and academia), and to build liberatory worlds through our words. Situating mass incarceration as an extension of colonial displacement and enslavement, we dialogically examine how psychology has upheld white supremacy through the illusion of objectivity and neutrality. Psychological concepts like critical consciousness and resilience are re-theorized to center embodied, collective struggles. Calling for psychology to move beyond apologies toward deep structural change and distributive justice, we advocate for centering the experience of those historically excluded in knowledge construction, resource allocation, and leadership. Imagining a psychology of love and solidarity, we urge dismantling oppressive institutions through pedagogies of radical solidarity. Our collaboration—across prison walls—models methodologies of mutual aid, conscientization, and power sharing to build a liberatory psychology.

“Trapped in a History Which They Do Not Understand:” Reading James Baldwin with Thomas Merton, Toward a Spiritual Theological Interpretation of Mass Incarceration

This paper argues that Thomas Merton’s under-appreciated engagement with James Baldwin reveals Baldwin to be an essential resource for a theological account of mass incarceration and the spiritual sustenance of ati6on to dismantle the “New Jim Crow.” Merton highlights the religious insight of Baldwin’s conviction that white Americans are ravaged by a spiritual imprisonment that is concretized in distinct historical dynamics and which spell an apocalyptic foreboding. White Americans are, in Baldwin’s words, “trapped in a history which they do not understand.” With attention to the methodological and ethical pimalls of reading Baldwin theologically, and situating this exchange in the broader context of black theology and theological/spiritual responses to mass incarcera6on, it is argued that Baldwin produces essential and unique religious insights for interrupting the contemporary criminalization of black bodies. Merton's additions to Baldwin's thought is generative for future possibilities, particularly with Merton's development of a more robust mysticism.

Freedom in an Age of Repression: The Role of Black Theology and Black-Produced Media in Forging Freedom

This paper will explore the role that black theology and black-produced films of 2016 play in creating a narrative that seeks freedom for African Americans in the United States during this age of brutality and mass incarceration. Starting with Alexander's The New Jim Crow and Duvernay's 13th, this paper illustrates how the media and the legal system have worked together to create a culture of criminality still imposed on black youth. Theologians Cone and Brown Douglas rely on the concepts of God's freedom, God's revolutionary love and faithful action to resist such a hostile culture, but two black-produced films of 2016 also rely on the concept of freedom in the face of criminality. Birth of a Nation not only to shows a positive portrayal of black men in the media, but Moonlight illustrates the complexity of growing up in communities that are repressed by this hostile culture.

Depoliticization and Necropolitics: A Critical Examination of Lukashenka’s Regime

ABSTRACT This article examines the intertwined logics of depoliticization and necropolitics as central elements of illiberal authoritarian power in post-2020 Belarus. It sheds light on the technologies used by Lukashenka’s regime to maintain its rule, including anti-feminist visuals, violence of mass incarceration, and dehumanization and demonization of political opponents. Relying on media analysis, the article discusses how these technologies function as mechanisms through which the regime enacts its necropolitical power to curtail any political engagement. Juxtaposing politicization with depoliticization and biopolitics with necropolitics, it advances a different understanding of these concepts in illiberal autocracies, emphasizing their mutually reinforcing relationship in Belarus.

Examining a Triple Threat: The Intersection of Mental Health, Substance Use, and Re-entry of a Sample of Justice-Involved Persons.

Having a mental health (MH) or substance use (SU) issue can make the transition from prison to the community a challenging process. Despite this, few studies have quantified how justice-involved individuals with mental health issues only, substance use only, those with both struggles, and those with neither are uniquely affected. Using a sample of re-entering men who were released from twelve state prisons in the United States, we assessed the effects of having MH and SU issues on their drug use during re-entry. Furthermore, we examined their differing coping reactions to housing insecurity, joblessness, and family tension after release. The results demonstrated that respondents' risk of SU during re-entry was associated with MH and SU issues measured at release. Those with co-occurring MH and SU challenges were at the highest risk of SU during re-entry. Furthermore, challenging life situations during re-entry exerted an amplified effect on SU for respondents with both anxiety and SU issues. The findings suggest that post-incarcerated individuals with co-occurring MH and SU issues have the highest risk of SU, and their reaction to re-entry barriers is distinct from their peers. Quality services to address co-occurring MH and SU may be needed to facilitate a smooth transition from prison to the community.

Passports, Prisons, and Every Space Between

In 2016 long-standing activism culminated in the implementation of Bill C-16, which added “gender and gender expression” to the protected classes of the Canadian Human Rights Act. Despite a commitment to consistency across federal policy, wide discrepancies occurred between the changes to the passport and those to the prison. On the one hand, Citizenship Canada announced that “people who do not identify as female (‘F’) or male (‘M’)” could change their passport sex to be an X. On the other hand, the Correctional Service of Canada (CSC) begrudgingly introduced Interim Policy Bulletin 584, which provides accommodation based “on gender identity or expression” within the binary system. Through a comparative analysis, this article queries the enactment of nonbinary recognition between two foundational sites of Canadian federal control: a site of mobility (the passport) and a site of immobility through mass incarceration (the prison). Arguing against expanding prisons or the creation of nonbinary correctional institutions, this article traces the racial geographies that X is both embedded within and enacts, exposing the violence that ushers forth new forms of trans citizenship reliant on anti-Blackness, captivity, and fungibility. Building from these case studies, this article mobilizes the state deployment of gendered expression and determination to nuance theories of gender self-determination. Specifically, this article considers how the theoretical application of the term may dissimulate distinctions in (in)violability, vulnerability, and capacity between and within Blackness and transness.

How Parental Incarceration Shapes the Timing and Structure of Fertility for Children of Incarcerated Parents

The timing and structure of fertility have important implications for individuals and society. Families play a critical role in fertility; however, little is known about how parental incarceration shapes fertility despite it being a common experience in the life course of disadvantaged children. This study examines the consequences of parental incarceration for children's fertility using the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997. I employ multiple-decrement life tables and survival analyses to estimate the relationship between parental incarceration and fertility. Individuals who experience parental incarceration have different timing of fertility, with earlier first births and a quicker pace of subsequent births, as well as more nonmarital fertility, compared with those who do not experience parental incarceration. This analysis finds consistent evidence that parental incarceration is associated with the timing and structure of fertility and suggests that a parent's incarceration carries consequences over the life course of children. This study advances our understanding of how mass incarceration shapes American families, illustrates how the broader consequences of mass incarceration contribute to social inequality, and provides evidence that the enduring implications of incarceration span multiple generations.

Suicide mortality among individuals in federal prisons compared with the general population: a retrospective cohort study in the USA from 2009 to 2020

IntroductionSuicide is one of the leading causes of death in US prisons. Yet, administrative data lags years behind and reporting rarely accounts for differing age distributions between suicide rates between...

Book Review: Steve Herbert, Too Easy to Keep: Life-Sentenced Prisoners and the Future of Mass Incarceration. First Edition. Oakland, CA: University of California Press. 2019. ISBN: 978- 0520300514

In his book, Too Easy to Keep, Steve Herbert a Mark Torrance Professor and Department Chair at the University of Washington Law, Societies, and Justices explores the consequences of the steady increase in lifesentence laws and the fiscal and human costs associated with implementation and application of these laws. This book specifically focuses on the journey of life-sentenced prisoners in search of atonement and how their projects of self-actualization and desires for redemption help transform and improve the institution in which they live.

The Relationship Between Family Member Incarceration, Criminal Offending, and Victimization.

Mass incarceration has significantly impacted families nationwide. Recent evidence suggests that at least 45% of Americans have experienced the incarceration of an immediate family member (Enns et al., 2019). Prior evidence has demonstrated that adolescents and young adults who experience family member incarceration experience increases in criminogenic outcomes. However, less is known about whether family member incarceration contributes to increases in victimization and if it occurs indirectly through increases in offending. To address this question, the current study uses 10 waves of the Pathways to Desistance Study, which is a longitudinal study that followed justice-involved youth over 7 years (N = 8,346 person waves). Using fixed-effects negative binomial regression, findings demonstrate that experiencing familial incarceration is associated with increases in victimization and that criminal offending may be one mechanism that indirectly explains this relationship. Policy and programming implications are further discussed.

How Does Structural Racism Operate (in) the Contemporary US Criminal Justice System?

How Does Structural Racism Operate (in) the Contemporary US Criminal Justice System?

Inside knowledge: Incarcerated people on the failures of the American prison By D.Larson, New York: New York University Press. 2024. pp. 301. $30.00 (hbk). ISBN: 9781479818006

Inside knowledge: Incarcerated people on the failures of the American prison By D.Larson, New York: New York University Press. 2024. pp. 301. $30.00 (hbk). ISBN: 9781479818006

Structural Racism, Mass Incarceration, and Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Severe Maternal Morbidity

Racial and ethnic inequities in the criminal-legal system are an important manifestation of structural racism. However, how these inequities may influence the risk of severe maternal morbidity (SMM) and its persistent racial and ethnic disparities remains underinvestigated. To examine the association between county-level inequity in jail incarceration rates comparing Black and White individuals and SMM risk in California. This population-based cross-sectional study used state-wide data from California on all live hospital births at 20 weeks of gestation or later from January 1, 1997, to December 31, 2018. Data were obtained from hospital discharge and vital statistics records, which were linked with publicly available county-level data. Data analysis was performed from January 2022 to February 2023. Jail incarceration inequity was determined from the ratio of jail incarceration rates of Black individuals to those of White individuals and was categorized as tertile 1 (low), tertile 2 (moderate), tertile 3 (high), with mean cutoffs across all years of 0 to 2.99, 3.00 to 5.22, and greater than 5.22, respectively. This study used race- and ethnicity-stratified mixed-effects logistic regression models with birthing people nested within counties and adjusted for individual- and county-level characteristics to estimate the odds of non-blood transfusion SMM (NT SMM) and SMM including blood transfusion-only cases (SMM; as defined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention SMM index) associated with tertiles of incarceration inequity. This study included 10 200 692 births (0.4% American Indian or Alaska Native, 13.4% Asian or Pacific Islander, 5.8% Black, 50.8% Hispanic or Latinx, 29.6% White, and 0.1% multiracial or other [individuals who self-identified with ≥2 racial groups and those who self-identified as "other" race or ethnicity]). In fully adjusted models, residing in counties with high jail incarceration inequity (tertile 3) was associated with higher odds of SMM for Black (odds ratio [OR], 1.14; 95% CI, 1.01-1.29 for NT SMM; OR, 1.20, 95% CI, 1.01-1.42 for SMM), Hispanic or Latinx (OR, 1.24; 95% CI, 1.14-1.34 for NT SMM; OR, 1.20; 95% CI, 1.14-1.27 for SMM), and White (OR, 1.02; 95% CI, 0.93-1.12 for NT SMM; OR, 1.09; 95% CI, 1.02-1.17 for SMM) birthing people, compared with residing in counties with low inequity (tertile 1). The findings of this study highlight the adverse maternal health consequences of structural racism manifesting via the criminal-legal system and underscore the need for community-based alternatives to inequitable punitive practices.