The Punitive Coma

2017

2001

2015

Law. The list of scholars who have stood at this podium is impressive and, frankly somewhat intimidating. I am humbled to be in their company. Our topic tonight is the phenomenon of "mass incarceration"-the reality that our country has increased the rate of incarceration more than four-fold over the past generation. The topic of mass incarceration is a scholar's delight. Historians, political scientists and legal scholars are deeply engaged in shedding light on how we got here. Economists, sociologists, and public health academics are helping us understand the realities of this unprecedented level of imprisonment of our fellow citizens. Criminologists, economists and philosophers are assessing the impact of this level of imprisonment on public safety, the national economy and civic participation. Yet before we dive in, I must confess that maintaining scholarly objectivity is difficult for me. I think this is one of the most important moral challenges facing our democracy. Stated bluntly, if this level of incarceration, or anything close to it, becomes our new normal, I am concerned for the future of our democratic experiment, our notion of limited government, and our pursuit of racial justice. A second admission: although I am an optimist by nature, I am not optimistic that we can figure this out. I fear that the dynamics that led us to this moment are so deeply ingrained in the American psyche, so embedded in our political realities and so central to our discourse on crime, punishment, and race that it is hard for me to imagine an exit strategy. I come to this conclusion in full recognition of the remarkable political consensus, including miraculous rightleft coalitions, that we must reduce our reliance on prison as a response to crime. I also come to this with profound respect for the many individuals, advocacy organizations and foundations that are committed to that goal. Stated differently, and bluntly, I believe that reversing course will require something much more profound than our current reform strategies. What is required is a deep cultural change. Tonight I will sketch the outlines of the transformation in our culture that I think will be required.

2016

The United States has less than 5 percent of the world’s population, and yet leads in the number of individuals who are imprisoned. Over a quarter of those in prison in the world reside within the United States prison system (Gottschalk, 2006). Over the past 50 years, the penal system in America has grown from a just, balanced system into an unchecked, wildly biased monster. This push towards mass incarceration has yielded among inmates increased chances of reoffending, homelessness, reliance on welfare, drug and alcohol abuse, and generational poverty. In order to cut the incredibly taxing cost of our current prison system and enable our citizens to lead better lives, alternative methods must be utilized for misdemeanors and nonviolent crimes. Keywords: incarceration, imprisonment, penal system, alternatives to incarceration, crime, reoffenders, poverty

Federal Sentencing Reporter, 2009

F e d e r a l S e n t e n c i n g r e p o r t e r • V o l . 2 2 , n o . 1 • o c t o b e r 2 0 0 9 1 E d i t o r ' s o b s E r v a t i o n s

This essay reviews trends since the early 1980s in the number of inmates confined in American prisons as well as possible factors contributing to the massive increase in prison admissions (ranging from highly functionalist structural accounts to more culturally embedded midrange ones). Defining features of the late twentieth century imprisonment boom are discussed, encompassing global notoriety; persistent racial disparities; the role of felony drug filings, convictions and sentences in fueling both the scale and racial disparities of imprisonment; and regional and jurisdictional variations in trends across three planes: federal-state, interstate, and intrastate. Finally, the recent “stabilization” of incarceration rates in the United States is described and possible implications considered.

Vera Institute of Justice, 2018