Why Are So Many Americans in Prison?

Notes

cHaPTER 1 1. The figures are based on the population in custody by institution type, not on jurisdiction. 2. David Weiman and Christopher Weiss (2009) demonstrate a pronounced increase in the nation’s incarceration rate from the pre- to the post-Prohibition periods from roughly 70 per 100,000 to 110 per 100,000. This earlier episode of high incarceration growth leads the authors to speculate that the nation’s correctional systems are subject to episodes of sharp changes, often induced by moral panics surrounding specific categories of crime. Indeed, the authors draw a direct comparison between Prohibition and the contemporary War on Drugs. 3. All references to the overall adult population in the following discussion are based on our tabulations of the 2004 American Community Survey (ACS). 4. National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), “The Numbers Count: Mental Disorders in America,” available at: http://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/publica tions/the-numbers-count-mental-disorders-in-america/index.shtml#Bipolar (accessed November 8, 2009). 5. Unfortunately, there are no nationally representative surveys that record whether an individual is incarcerated and where that individual is incarcerated that would permit such tabulations. Microdata from past U.S. decennial censuses, as well as data from the annual American Community Survey, contain information on whether a respondent is institutionalized, with the overwhelming majority of the institutionalized in these data sets being in prisons and jails. However, we cannot identify the type of institution in these data. To estimate the proportion incarcerated displayed in figures 1.4 and 1.5 and table 1.3, we use the 2004 Survey of noteS 266 NOTES Inmates in State and Federal Corrections Facilities (SISFCF) and the 2002 Survey of Inmates in Local Jails (SILJ) to estimate the distribution of inmates across age, race, gender, and educational attainment groups (with all these dimensions interacted with one another). We apply these distribution estimates to 2007 institutional population totals from the Bureau of Justice Statistics to estimate the number of inmates in each demographic subgroup. We then use microdata from the 2007 American Community Survey (ACS) to estimate the population totals that serve as the denominator in the incarceration ratios presented . Thankfully, the overall incarceration rates combining federal, state, and local jail inmates using the method we describe here match closely the estimates of overall incarceration rates using the ACS institutionalized groups quarters variable. 6. The relationship between education and incarceration risk is even greater than what is implied by the numbers in table 1.3. Many inmates earn GEDs while incarcerated, effectively augmenting the incarceration rate for those with a high school degree while diminishing the incarceration risk for those without one. 7. The California incarceration rate is quite close to the national average in most years. California does differ, however, in the dynamics of its incarcerated population . Given the disproportionate contribution of parole violators to the prison population in California, the typical spell in a prison there is considerably shorter than it is for the nation. The high parole failure rate leads to a much larger prison admissions rate than that for the nation. 8. Note the closer concordance between the lifetime risk measures and the prevalence of prior incarceration experience for 1974, when rates were considerably more stable. 9. Most of the discussion in this subsection relies on data from various years of the Justice Expenditures and Employment Extracts produced by the BJS. As of this writing, the most recent year for this data series is 2007. 10. There are numerous intergovernmental grants flowing from the federal government to state governments, from state governments to local governments, and from local governments to state governments. The lion’s share of these indirect expenditures flows from the states to counties to help defer local jail expenditures . Figure 1.6 displays direct expenditures only so as not to double-count the value of intergovernmental grants. 11. These data come from the Data Base on Historical Finances of State Government: Fiscal Year 1942 Through 2008, compiled by the U.S. Census Bureau (2009). 12. Not all states have readily available estimates of per-inmate costs. Those states NOTES 267 for which we could not find an official per-capita expenditure estimate are indicated in the table. 13. Figures come from the California Legislative Analyst’s Office, “Criminal Justice and Judiciary: How Much Does It Cost to Incarcerate an Inmate?,” available at: http://www.lao.ca.gov/laoapp/laomenus...