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Our Crisis of Justice
- Augsburg Fortress Publishers
- Chapter
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1 Our Crisis of Justice Criminal justice systems in the United States are in crisis. Currently over 7.3 million adults in the United States are under some form of supervision, including probation, jail, prison, and parole, by state, local, or federal criminal justice systems.1 At midyear 2009, nearly 1.6 million people were in prison, and nearly 800,000 were in jail.2 These numbers represent a gross increase in the rate of incarceration in the United States over the last several decades. In 1972, the rate of incarceration in prisons was ninety-three people per hundred thousand U.S. residents. Over nearly forty years, this rate has increased by almost 540 percent; it was 502 people per hundred thousand U.S. residents in 2009 (these rates do not include jail inmates, who bring the overall rate of incarceration up to 762 people per hundred thousand).3 Although the United States has less than 5 percent of the world’s population, it holds nearly 25 percent of the world’s incarcerated people.4 The United States incarcerates its residents at higher rates than any other nation, and we incarcerate more people than any other nation (China, with an overall population more than four times as large as the U.S. 1. Heather C. West, “Prison Inmates at Midyear 2009—Statistical Tables,” Bureau of Justice Statistics, U.S. Department of Justice, accessed July 21, 2010, http://bjs.ojp.usdoj.gov/content/pub/pdf/pim09st.pdf. In what follows, I draw on statistics that highlight the plight of prison and jail inmates. However, a larger proportion of the population of the United States experiences criminal justice systems through probation or parole. When we see statistics about incarceration rates, we really see only the proverbial tip of the iceberg of criminal justice systems. 2. Ibid. Jails differ from prisons in that the former typically confine only people prior to trial or sentencing and those who have been convicted of a misdemeanor, usually resulting in a sentence of less than one year. That is, jails are used for holding and restraining people temporarily while prisons generally have more permanent populations. 3. Ibid. “Key Facts at a Glance: Correctional Populations,” Bureau of Justice Statistics, U.S. Department of Justice, http://bjs.ojp.usdoj.gov/content/glance/tables/corr2tab.cfm. See also Kathleen Maguire, ed., Sourcebook of Criminal Justice Statistics (table 6.28.2009), http://www.albany.edu/sourcebook/pdf/ t6282009.pdf. 4. Adam Liptak, “U.S. Prison Population Dwarfs That of Other Nations,” New York Times, April 23, 2008. 11 population, incarcerates the second-highest number of people at 1.6 million inmates, more than 700,000 fewer people than the United States).5 In short, we have more people locked up in the United States and at higher rates than at any other time in our history and any other nation. While these numbers are troubling enough to raise serious questions about our criminal justice systems, discrepancies related to race and ethnicity among prison and jail populations add greater urgency. Racial and ethnic minority populations are incarcerated at astounding rates in comparison with whites. At midyear 2009, the incarceration rate of black non-Hispanic men was six times that of the incarceration rate of white non-Hispanic men and nearly three times that of Hispanic men.6 Although about 93 percent of people in state and federal prisons in 2009 were men, in recent years the incarceration rate of women has increased twice as quickly as that of men. While women are incarcerated at about a tenth of the rate of men, the population of incarcerated women reflects similar racial and ethnic disparities as the male inmate population.7 Black non-Hispanic women are incarcerated at nearly four times the rate of white non-Hispanic women and over twice that of Hispanic women.8 Increasing incarceration hits racial and ethnic minority populations in the United States especially hard. In addition to racial and ethnic disparities, criminal justice systems in the United States are also marred by disparities related to socioeconomic status. Measures of the socioeconomic status of people in jail or prison are difficult to find; income and wealth are not noted upon incarceration as are sex and race. However, according to Marc Mauer of The Sentencing Project, “a 1997 survey of state inmates conducted by the Justice Department found that 68 percent of prisoners had not completed high school, 53 percent earned less than $1,000 in the month prior to...