One of the dramatic social transformations in the United States over the past two decades has been the rapid rise in the prison population. Between 1980 and 2000, the US prison population increased four-fold from 300 thousand to over 1.2 million. 1 Including those in local jails, over 2 million individuals are currently incarcerated. 2 At these rates, the Bureau of Justice Statistics (" BJS") estimates that approximately 9 percent of all men will serve some time in state or federal prisons. 3 Within certain sub-groups of the population, the proportion that is likely to serve time is quite large. For example, nearly 30 percent of African American men and 16 percent of Hispanic men will serve a prison sentence at some point in their lives. 4 Given that the median time served for prisoners released during the late 1990s was a little over two years, 5 a large minority of non-institutionalized men now have records of having served time in state or federal prisons. Previous estimates for t Professor of Public Policy, School of Public Affairs, University of California, Los Angeles.

1 Ann L. Pastore and Kathleen Maguire, eds, Sourcebook of Criminal Justice Statistics Table 6.1. 2006, available at< http://www. albany. edu/sourcebook/pdf/t612006. pdf>(last visited Mar 18, 2009) and Table 6.28. 2006, available at< http://www. albany. edul sourcebook/pdf/t6282006. pdf>(last visited Mar 18, 2009).