Disproportionate Incarceration Research Articles

Are Racial and Educational Inequities in Mass Incarceration Perceived to be a Social Problem? Results from an Experiment

AbstractThe disproportionate incarceration of certain groups, racial minorities, and the less educated constitutes a social problem from the perspective of both policy makers and researchers. One aspect that is poorly understood is whether the public is similarly concerned about inequities in mass incarceration. Using a list experiment embedded in a framing experiment, we test for differences in attitudes towards mass incarceration by exploring three frames: race, education, and the United States in global context. We test whether social desirability bias causes people to over-state their concern about mass incarceration when directly queried. We find that mass incarceration is seen as a problem in the United States, whether the issue is framed by race, education, or as a global outlier. The list experiment reveals that public concern about mass incarceration is not quite as great as overtly-expressed opinion would suggest, and the framing experiment indicates that race-neutral frames evoke greater concern about mass incarceration than an emphasis on racial disparities.

Special Issue: Community, Psychology and Family Therapy

Special Issue: Community, Psychology and Family Therapy

Black Buddhists and the Body: New Approaches to Socially Engaged Buddhism

This article deconstructs how Buddhist practitioners of African descent acknowledge racism and challenge predominantly white, affluent Buddhist sanghas that embrace the tenets of Socially Engaged Buddhism. It argues that practitioners of African descent directly acknowledge the social constructs of the black body that result in violent practices such as police brutality and disproportionate black incarceration. To support this argument, I rely on primary texts published by Socially Engaged Buddhists. The results conclude that black Buddhists not only highlight the suffering wrought by racism in the West, they also challenge white sangha members to reckon with the depth of racism in society and in their sanghas. I conclude that black Buddhists, in their acknowledgement of the socially constructed meanings of the black body, offer an important challenge to Socially Engaged Buddhism.

“It Ruined My Life”: The effects of the War on Drugs on people who inject drugs (PWID) in rural Puerto Rico

BackgroundThe War on Drugs has raised the incarceration rates of racial minorities for non-violent drug-related crimes, profoundly stigmatized drug users, and redirected resources from drug prevention and treatment to militarizing federal and local law enforcement. Yet, while some states consider shifting their punitive approach to drug use, to one based on drug treatment and rehabilitation, nothing suggests that these policy shifts are being replicated in Puerto Rico. MethodsThis paper utilizes data from 360 PWID residing in four rural towns in the mountainous area of central Puerto Rico. We initially recruited 315 PWID using respondent-driven sampling (RDS) and collected data about risk practices and conducted HIV and HCV testing. During a second phase, we conducted 34 micro-ethnographic assays, in which we randomly recruited 34 participants from the first phase and included their ego networks in this phase. Our ethnographic inquiry produced significant data regarding the effects of the war on drugs on the local drug trade, drug availability, and injectors' social networks. ResultsFindings suggest that repressive policing has been ineffective in preventing drug distribution and use among those in our study. This type of law enforcement approach has resulted in the disproportionate incarceration of poor drug users in rural Puerto Rico, and mainly for nonviolent drug-related crimes. In addition, incarceration exposes PWID to a form of a cruel and unusual punishment: having to quit heroin “cold turkey” while the prison environment also represents a HIV/HCV risk. In turn, the war on drugs not only diverts resources from treatment but also shapes treatment ideologies, punishing non-compliant patients. ConclusionShifting the emphasis from repression to treatment and rehabilitation is likely to have a positive impact on the health and overall quality of life of PWID and their communities.

African American Fathers: Disproportionate Incarceration and the Meaning of Involvement

Impoverished and African American fathers are often criticized by policy makers for lack of involvement in their children's lives. These criticisms are limited to defining responsible fatherhood as providing economic support while ignoring other forms of nurturing. Recent studies provide a broader perspective on how impoverished and African American fathers nurture their children. This article analyzes data from five studies carried out in Syracuse, New York, between 1996 and 2011. The studies support the contention that structural violence, inherent in the disproportionate incarceration of African American fathers, is a critical factor impeding the fathers from fulfilling their paternal roles. We discuss policy issues affecting incarcerated fathers that limit the extent to which they are able to bond with their children.

Neighborhood Trauma Due to Violence: A Multilevel Analysis.

In Syracuse, New York the social determinants of trauma from neighborhood violence are rooted in historical processes, including urban renewal, the Rockefeller drug laws, and de-industrialization. These contributed to destabilizing Syracuse communities of color, resulting in disproportionate incarceration, family disruption, and economic devastation. Community violence, clustering in densely populated neighborhoods, creates unmanageable stress for the families who live in them. A map of gunshots and gun fatalities (2009 to 2014) illustrates the continuing onslaught of bullets being fired, often in close proximity to elementary schools. A community survey indicated that over half of respondents personally knew more than 10 murder victims. Half the respondents scored positive on the Civilian PTSD Checklist; there thus is a great deal of unaddressed traumatic stress in the community. This analysis, conducted to prepare for planning future interventions to reduce the community trauma and violence, is part of an ongoing university-community collaboration.

Incarceration Rates and Traits of Sexual Minorities in the United States: National Inmate Survey, 2011-2012.

To report characteristics of sexual minority US inmates. We drew our data from the National Inmate Survey, 2011-2012, a probability sample of inmates in US prisons and jails. We determined weighted proportions and odds ratios with 95% confidence intervals to estimate differences between sexual minority and heterosexual inmates. Sexual minorities (those who self-identify as lesbian, gay, or bisexual or report a same-sex sexual experience before arrival at the facility) were disproportionately incarcerated: 9.3% of men in prison, 6.2% of men in jail, 42.1% of women in prison, and 35.7% of women in jail were sexual minorities. The incarceration rate of self-identified lesbian, gay, or bisexual persons was 1882 per 100 000, more than 3 times that of the US adult population. Compared with straight inmates, sexual minorities were more likely to have been sexually victimized as children, to have been sexually victimized while incarcerated, to have experienced solitary confinement and other sanctions, and to report current psychological distress. There is disproportionate incarceration, mistreatment, harsh punishment, and sexual victimization of sexual minority inmates, which calls for special public policy and health interventions.

Changing Ethnic and Racial Diversity in the United States: A Review Essay

Changing Ethnic and Racial Diversity in the United States: A Review Essay

First Comes Legalization, then Comes What? Tips for Washington and Colorado to Help Break the Cycle of Selective Prosecution and Disproportionate Sentencing

The recent modifications of drug laws in Colorado and Washington risk duplicating the pattern of subjugation created by current drug laws. Portions of the Washington statute, in particular, threaten to maintain the status quo and to perpetuate stereotypes of African Americans and Latinos. The states’ approaches to marijuana legalization signal that it is time now, more than ever, to reevaluate and restructure our current drug laws to prevent selective prosecution as well as the disproportionate incarceration of men and women of color. In reforming current laws, however, states must avoid incorporating terms and limitations that might trigger new forms of profiling.Part I of this Article proceeds by exposing the disproportionate impact of drug policies on men and women of color. Part II then discusses the recent laws in Washington and Colorado and their potential for perpetuating the prevailing practice of selective enforcement. Finally, Part III espouses cautionary principles for other states considering legalization.

Racial Disproportionality in the Criminal Justice System for Drug Offenses

This article describes the work of the Illinois Disproportionate Justice Impact Study Commission, a nonpartisan, multidisciplinary group of policy makers, government leaders, and justice professionals that focused on understanding and alleviating the disproportionate incarceration of African Americans and Latinos in Illinois for drug law violations. The study data were obtained from arrest records statewide and court cases in Cook County (Chicago), which were both drawn from calendar year 2005. Results showed that racial disproportionality in arrests for drug crimes is found in urban, suburban, and rural counties of the state and is more pronounced among arrestees with arrest records than among first-time arrestees. Analyses of Cook County court data showed that controlling for other variables, including criminal history, African Americans were approximately 2.2 times more likely than Whites, and Latinos were approximately 1.6 times more likely than Whites, to be prosecuted for drug offenses. Unequal outcomes in court processing compound the disparities at arrest, perpetuating a vicious cycle. The article concludes with the Commission’s proposed remedies for racial disproportionality.

Addressing Racial Disparities in Incarceration

This article reviews the current trends and impact of mass incarceration on communities of color, with a focus on criminal justice policy and practice contributors to racial disparity. The impact of these disproportionate incarceration rates on public safety, offenders, and communities are discussed. Recommendations for criminal justice and other policy reforms to reduce unwarranted racial disparities are offered.

Studying health disparities by including incarcerated and formerly incarcerated individuals.

IN SEPTEMBER 2010, THE NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH formalized a commitment to ending health disparities by establishing a 27th institute, the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities, with priorities that include “improving the participation of health disparity populations in clinical research.” Accomplishment of this important goal will require recognition of the disproportionate incarceration of individuals from racial/ ethnic minority populations and reassessment of the federal near prohibition on the participation of current and former prisoners in clinical research. Currently, more than 2.3 million individuals are incarcerated in the United States. It is estimated that on any given day, 1 in 9 US black men aged 20 to 34 years is incarcerated, and 1 in 3 black men are expected to be imprisoned at some point in their lives if rates of incarceration stay the same. Ninety-five percent of these individuals are ultimately released back into society but most continue to cycle through the legal system throughout their lives. These numbers have direct bearing on the ability to design and implement studies of health disparity populations and thereby undermine the ability to understand and mitigate the racial/ ethnic health disparities such studies seek to diminish. For example, cardiovascular disease mortality is 20% higher in black men than in white men. Similarly, hypertension, a risk factor for cardiovascular disease, tends to be more common, develops at an earlier age, and is more severe for black than white individuals. Much of what is known about these disparities has been derived from federally funded cross-sectional studies such as the National Health and Nutrition Examination Studies, which sample noninstitutionalized, community-dwelling adults. However, if 1 in 9 young black men is currently incarcerated, how accurate can the surveillance of racial disparities be—especially since incarceration may be associated with an increased risk of developing cardiovascular disease? For comparison, if 1 in 9 of these black men were a current smoker (and given that such rates of smoking were exceptionally high), but these men could not be included in national surveys, estimates of smoking prevalence might be inaccurate. By not including the 2.3 million currently incarcerated individuals in national surveys, the surveillance systems might provide flawed estimates of racial/ethnic disparities in cardiovascular risk factors and miss opportunities to understand how incarceration and the correctional health care system affect cardiovascular risk factors and disease. Mass incarceration affects not only disease surveillance but also studies of risk factors for the development of cardiovascular disease or tests of interventions to reduce disease in minority populations. The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute spends hundreds of millions of dollars on prospective cohort studies and randomized controlled trials such as the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities study, the Jackson Heart Study, the Multiethnic Study of Atherosclerosis, and the Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults (CARDIA) study, all of which are focused on improving the health of minority populations. Of critical importance to the validity of these studies is participant follow-up over time. However, in all of the aforementioned studies, observing young black men over time has proven to be challenging. In CARDIA, for example, only 56% of black men remained in the study at the year 20 examination in 2005, compared with 75% of white men, 68% of black women, and 77% of white women. It is likely that at least some of the black men who dropped out of CARDIA did so because of incarceration. What are the potential implications if a disproportionate number of black men are being excluded from crosssectional and prospective cohort studies due to incarceration? Only 2 potential implications, power and precision, are considered in this Commentary. If a significant proportion of black men are lost to follow-up or excluded, statistical power for that group may be reduced, impeding efforts to identify significant associations. Furthermore, if data are not missing at random, which they are not if imprisonment disproportionately affects black men, the estimated effects may be biased for black men (assuming the dependent and explanatory variables are associated with incarceration). Thus, the loss of black men from medical research due to incarceration may produce biased, underpowered estimates in studies of health disparities.

Depression in a Random Sample of Incarcerated African-American Men

To the Editor: Approximately two million individuals are incarcerated in the United States. Correctional institutions currently house more individuals with serious and persistent mental illness than any other type of U.S. institution (1). Given the disproportionate incarceration of African-American men and the difficulty they experience in accessing mental health treatment services outside of correctional environments (2), insight into their mental health status is critical for informing novel treatment approaches for such a vulnerable population. This study was conducted between April and August 2008 in one of the largest maximum-security male correctional institutions in the U.S. The Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) (3) was administered to assess depressive symptoms among 134 randomly selected incarcerated African-American men. Pearson's correlation coefficients (r) were computed to examine relationships between interval and ratio variables; chi square tests evaluated differences between categorical variables. Logistic regression estimated odds ratios (ORs) and associated confidence intervals (CIs) for depression and the following participant characteristics: age, marital status (married or unmarried), education level, probation or parole status when arrested, previous incarceration, total time incarcerated, and sentence received. Each participant was required to read a non-signatory consent form; placing a check mark at the end of this form confirmed their verbal agreement to participate in the study. This study was approved by the institutional review boards of the research community and the Department of Corrections. A certificate of confidentiality was received to further protect participants' rights. Study participants' ages ranged from 25 to 74 years (mean±SD=42.1±10.8). A majority (80%, N=107) were not married. Eighty-four percent (N=113) possessed at least a high school diploma or GED. Half of the sample (50%, N=67) reported being previously incarcerated. Most (69%, N=92) were currently incarcerated for violent offenses. On average, participants had been incarcerated for 13.1 years. The mean sentence length was 37.5±25.4 years. Overall, the mean BDI score was 11.22±7.03, an indicator of mild clinical depression according to recommended standards (4). Forty-three percent of the participants (N=57) were classified as clinically depressed. Among the depressed participants, 29% (N=39) were considered moderately depressed, 11% (N=15) were moderately to severely depressed, and 2% (N=3) were severely depressed. There were several statistically significant differences between participants whose BDI scores were in the depressed range and those whose scores did not meet the depression criterion. [A table presenting data on these differences is available in an online supplement at ps.psychiatryonline.org.] Age was significantly correlated with depression (r=.18, p<.05); older participants were more likely to experience depression. Participants with at least a high school diploma or GED were more likely than those without a high school education to experience depression (χ2=3.82, df=1, p<.05). Participants on probation or parole when arrested were less likely to experience depression than those who were not on probation or parole when arrested (χ2=7.98, df=1, p<.05). Participants with at least a high school education were almost three times as likely as their less educated counterparts to experience depression (OR=2.88, 95% CI= .96–8.59) [see additional table in the online supplement for this analysis]. Being on probation or parole at the time of arrest was associated with lower levels of depressive symptoms (OR=.27, 95% CI=.11–.67). These findings suggest that corrections officials should consider age, education level, and probation-parole status when adopting treatment approaches. Helping prisoners implement a comprehensive treatment plan that could be used consistently after release could significantly improve the likelihood that they will not be reincarcerated (5), allowing them time to adjust to mainstream society after release.

We’ve Had Three of Them: Addressing the Invisibility of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Gender Nonconforming Youths in the Juvenile Justice System

Two researchers were speaking to a high-ranking probation officer from a large city, trying to convince her to participate in a project on lesbian, gay, bisexual and questioning (LGB), and gender nonconforming youths. (1) Her first response was, I've worked in this system for twenty-five years and in all of that time I think we've had three of [these types of youths]. (2) This quote perfectly captures a prevalent myth: the juvenile justice system detains only very few LGB and gender non-conforming youths. Juvenile justice professionals believe this myth because only a handful of LGB and gender non-conforming youths disclose their sexual orientations, act in ways that do not conform to gender norms, (3) or have court cases linked to their sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression. (4) However, many LGB youths, youths who are questioning their sexual orientations or youths who have non-conforming gender identities enter the juvenile justice system unnoticed. (5) The disproportionate incarceration of youths of color within the juvenile justice system further reinforces the invisibility of LGB and gender non-conforming youths. (6) Many juvenile justice professionals assume that LGB and gender non-conforming youths come from middle class, white families, and therefore, juvenile justice jurisdictions detaining large numbers of youths of color do not serve LGB and gender non-conforming youths. (7) This Article shows that both assumptions are wrong. National survey data presented in this Article shows that fifteen percent of youths in the juvenile justice system are LGB, questioning their sexual orientation, transgender or express their gender in non-conforming ways. Moreover, the data shows that equal proportions of white, African American and Latino youths are LGB and gender non-conforming. (8) Yet, myths around the nonexistence of LGB and gender nonconforming youths in the juvenile justice system persist, presenting numerous challenges to the equitable treatment of such youths. Juvenile justice professionals need to know that LGB or gender non-conforming youths exist within the system, and that LGB or gender non-conforming youths often enter the juvenile justice system for different reasons than straight youths. For example, the findings presented in this Article show that LGB or gender non-conforming youths are more likely than heterosexual youths to enter the juvenile justice system because they run away from home or placement or because of status offenses such as truancy. (9) Juvenile justice professionals need to know the underlying reasons for failure to remain at home, in placement or truancy in order to identify successful alternatives to detention and out-of-home placements or to assign appropriate terms of probation. Yet, gathering information about clients' sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression create a difficult conundrum for juvenile justice professionals. While juvenile justice professionals need to know the reasons that youths have entered the juvenile justice system, many youths do not disclose their sexual orientations or gender identities. Research that uncovers high levels of homophobic reprisal from peers, parents, institutional staff or judges provides one possible explanation for such lack of disclosure: youths may fear further victimization if they disclose their sexual orientation or gender identity. (10) The policy recommendations provided at the end of this Article can help create safe conditions that lead to disclosure about sexual orientation and gender identity, but there will always be youths who prefer to maintain their privacy. (11) Faced with the need to serve LGB and gender non-conforming youths while respecting their privacy, national survey data can help inform practice even when the sexual orientation or gender identity of individual youths are not known in individual instances. By analyzing 2,100 surveys that have been collected from six jurisdictions across the country, this Article: * provides the only existing estimates of the number of LGB and gender non-conforming youths who enter the juvenile justice system; * describes patterns of incarceration for LGB and gender nonconforming youths compared with their heterosexual and gender conforming peers to help juvenile justice professionals understand the social context around the detention of many LGB and gender non-conforming youths; and * offers suggestions to juvenile justice professionals on how to address the needs of LGB and gender non-conforming youths, whether visible or invisible within the juvenile justice system. …

Culture-Based Justice Architecture: Building Community Wellbeing Through Deeper Cultural Engagement

Law and the culture of law find their expression in the many facets of the law's institutions. One of the most visible of these is the architecture of the places in which the legal process is enacted. Through architecture it is possible to communicate widely variant cultural perspectives on the rule of law. In contemporary Australia, an advanced and successful democracy, Aboriginal families continue to experience grossly disproportionate incarceration rates in the justice and correctional institutional systems, often in demonstrably inappropriate environments. Most commentators agree that a significant contributing factor to overrepresentation in these institutions is the high degree of cultural loss that Aboriginal Australia has suffered, and continues to suffer. This paper argues that part of the solution lies in an acknowledgment of and engagement with Aboriginal culture where it persists as an evident and potentially viable feature of Aboriginal communities. Anthropologists, sociologists, Aboriginal advocates and linguists have furnished tools necessary to implement a culturally literate understanding in the endeavors of law reformers, architects and agents of economic development. Nevertheless there remains at political and key administrative levels, significant pockets of resistance to such an approach to reform. The author, a practicing architect specializing in the design of a broad range of facilities in cross cultural environments, draws upon successful examples of both built works and projects to demonstrate a proven approach to tackling the problem successfully. It is suggested that whilst the cultural circumstances of Aboriginal Australia are unique, the underlying principles of the approach advanced by this paper may be broadly applicable in many of the projects supported by the World Bank and others working towards the advancement of justice reform through the implementation of practical initiatives in communities.

Incarceration as a key variable in racial disparities of asthma prevalence

BackgroundDespite the disproportionate incarceration of minorities in the United States, little data exist investigating how being incarcerated contributes to persistent racial/ethnic disparities in chronic conditions. We hypothesized that incarceration augments disparities in chronic disease.MethodsUsing data from the New York City Health and Nutrition Examination Study, a community-based survey of 1999 adults, we first estimated the association between having a history of incarceration and the prevalence of asthma, diabetes, hypertension using propensity score matching methods. Propensity scores predictive of incarceration were generated using participant demographics, socioeconomic status, smoking, excessive alcohol and illicit drug use, and intimate partner violence. Among those conditions associated with incarceration, we then performed mediation analysis to explore whether incarceration mediates racial/ethnic disparities within the disease.ResultsIndividuals with a history of incarceration were more likely to have asthma compared to those without (13% vs. 6%, p < 0.05) and not more likely to have diabetes or hypertension, after matching on propensity scores. Statistical mediation analysis revealed that increased rates of incarceration among Blacks partially contribute to the racial disparity in asthma prevalence.ConclusionHaving been incarcerated may augment racial disparities in asthma among NYC residents. Eliminating health disparities should include a better understanding of the role of incarceration and criminal justice policies in contributing to these disparities.

On the Modalities of the Domestic

ABSTRACTThis article focuses on experiences of the domestic—of houses, of intimacy and privacy—and what relation these bear to the kinds of sentiments about life which are given expression as fragile, endangered or fleeting. We think of singularity as lying in the potential for multiple domesticities that emerge at different times and are neither coterminous with family nor indeed with household. Based on fieldwork with African-American and Caribbean families in Miami, Florida and Baltimore, MD, the article tracks how intimacy and alienation marks the constant moves from, to, and through households. This oscillation engenders an itinerant domesticity and life lived in the interstices of the house, the clinic, the prison, and the street. These spaces and places come to bear on what comes to be marked as so-called “African-American kinship.” Given the disproportionate incarceration of African-American men in US prisons, the article contemplates the permeable relation between carceral institutions and the home, as well as the constitution of kinship as “criminal.”All names used in this text are pseudonyms to protect the confidentiality of respondents.

Exploring the Group-Identity Function of Criminal Law

In every country where the question has been studied, incarceration rates for members of some minority groups greatly exceed those for the majority population. The problem of disproportionate incarceration is not therefore a problem of one ethnic group or one set of historical circumstances. It is a human problem that is fundamentally connected to social group identity. This essay conducts a preliminary exploration of the role that criminal law serves in group-identity formation. It suggests that building a common or super-group identity may be necessary to achieve greater justice in increasingly multi-ethnic and mobile societies.

The Disproportionate Incarceration of African Americans for Drug Offenses: The National and Illinois Perspective

ABSTRACT In 2000, a Human Rights Watch report identified Illinois as having the country's highest African American–White disparity in prison admissions for drug offenses. In response to the report, a disproportionate minority confinement (DMC) working group was formed to investigate further the nature and extent of racial disparities in the incarceration of drug offenders in Illinois. This article summarizes information collected in the DMC project, discusses national trends in arrests and incarcerations for drug offenses, and describes the unstinting growth in the prison population attributable to increases in the number of persons imprisoned for drug offenses. It concludes with recommendations for future research on the origins of disproportionality as well as policy changes to alleviate prison overcrowding and racial disparities in imprisonment for drug crimes.

Going Home: Formerly Incarcerated African American Men Return to Families and Communities

More than 800,000 African American men are currently incarcerated in prisons or jails in the United States. Most of these men leave prison ill prepared to return to society as workers, or to reintegrate into family settings. Returning from prison is complicated by struggles in the housing and job markets. This article begins with a review of literature exploring drug laws and disproportionate incarceration rates, homelessness, and joblessness. Data from a community-based, qualitative study of African American men following incarceration is presented. A discussion of how incarceration influenced their return to family situations is included that supports the findings by earlier studies on the effects of homelessness and joblessness on individuals and families. The article concludes with recommendations for the development of targeted support systems and offers suggestions for future nursing research with this population.