Mass Incarceration and Economic and Social Hierarchy in America Assignment | Essay Help Services

https://newlearn.govst.edu/bbcswebdav/pid-393916-dt-content-rid-1631989_1/courses/IDSS-4900-05_20SP/Integrative research project instructions idss 4900 sp 2020 revised.pdf

Bianca Montesdeoca

GOVERNORS STATE UNIVERSITY

IDSS 4900: Appraisal in Interdisciplinary Studies

Dr. Crystal Harris, PhD

May 11, 2020

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Abstract

 

In the United States, we face a huge society issue that is mass incarceration. This poison that flows freely in our society has an immense effect on those who live in poverty. The project I propose to elaborate on is mass incarceration and its ties to poverty in maintaining economic and social hierarchy in America. Although there is a myriad of disciplines we can interconnect, we will focus on criminal justice, health, sociology, and economics. Tough on crime laws institutionalized the notion that mass incarceration was justified in tying age old perceptions of minorities and has led us to fighting racial economic equality through the criminal justice system. Throughout this paper, I will evaluate literature that is based on the effects of mass incarceration. I will discuss and examine the methods used to enforce mass incarceration and how researchers have laid out the findings of these disparities.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mass Incarceration: How Incarceration Impacts Maintaining Economic and Social Hierarchy in America

 

The mass imprisonment movement can be traced to the late 1990s when there was a shift in politics and economics. Americans were consistently fed the idea of civil rights protests as social disorder causing support for new law and order amongst southern whites and northern working class voters.(the future of mass incarceration p853) Once these ideas were supported with high crime rates and news reporting, the Republican Party’s law and order themes increased and were spread causing movements for mandatory minimum sentences, sentence enhancements for repeat offenders, and expanded prison capacity. Not only did incarceration rates expand the fastest under the Republican party but the Democrats proved to be the toughest on crime when President Clinton signed the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994. (future of mass in 853)

When you think of criminal justice you naturally come to the belief that law is moral. When you are acting lawfully you are then a good person. When looking at the numbers of people who are incarcerated, we can distinctly see who the United States does not deem “good”. Whites are incarcerated at a rate of approximately 400 per 100,000 white residents, high by international standards but not the highest. (Morsy, L., & Rothstein, R. , n.d.) In response to this prison boom we see the effects on the economic situation of black men and men with low levels of education.

 

Method

In order to preserve the American economic social structure that keeps African Americans at the bottom and whites at the top, harsher punishments were inflicted through imprisonment. While this oppression is obvious, we cannot ignore the fact that many communities stand to benefit financially from mass incarceration which is comparable to the slavery system. Society found that they could use the penal system to control black labor and even used prison construction as part of rural economic development strategies.  This can be seen through the policies sustained through time and can be linked between race and crime. Civil forfeiture laws passed in 1984 allowed state and local police to share in drug related assets and provided resources to focus on the drug war which empowered police with discretion to stop and search citizens with little to no probable cause. This role has been the cause in excessive and disproportionate incarceration rates we see today. Through Figure D we see arrest rates in 1980 & 2009 for whites, Figure E provides arrest rates in 1980 & 2009 for blacks, and Figure F provides the percentage change in arrests over the period for blacks and whites for each crime category.  (epi wehre do we go from here) Through these visuals we can see that African Americans have much higher arrest rates than whites in every category. By incentivizing police resources through laws and grants, we do not see lower crime rates but higher arrest rates to measure efficacy and demand.

 

 

 

Results

Fifty four percent of inmates are parents with minor children (ages 0-17), including more than 120,000 mothers and 1.1 million fathers. (The Pew Charitable Trusts, 2010) Incarceration of a parent hangs heavy over the development of a child. The effects of parental incarceration on physical health have been found to be long-lasting; youth experiencing parental incarceration are more likely to report higher levels of obesity, asthma, migraines, and hypertension later on in adulthood (Lee, Fang, & Luo, 2013). (Hiolski et al., 2019).  Not only do children face health risks they also run into behavioral issues.  In one study that included both mothers and fathers, differences in children’s outcomes by gender of the parent were found: maternal incarceration was associated with increased depressive symptoms in children and paternal incarceration was associated with increased substance abuse issues in children (Foster & Hagan, 2013). (Bell, M. F., Bayliss, D. M., Glauert, R., & Ohan, J. L. , 2018) Children of the incarcerated have worse cognitive and noncognitive outcomes than children with similar socioeconomic and demographic characteristics whose parents have not experienced incarceration. (Morsy, L., & Rothstein, R. , n.d.) Children of incarcerated fathers are 51 percent more likely to suffer from anxiety, 43 percent more likely to suffer from depression, and 72 percent more likely to suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder. These findings demonstrate the severe ramifications of mass incarceration on children that become generational.

 

Besides the unique risk factors children of incarcerated parents have, the parent themselves face difficulties during their stay and once back in society. Health disparities between those with and without a history of incarceration may persist and even widen after release. After release, individuals with health problems during incarceration often experience disruption in medical care due to a lack of health insurance and access to community-based care (Mallik-Kane & Visher, 2008; Rich et al., 2014). (Udo, T. (2019). One line of research, in particular, has recognized mass incarceration as an important social determinant of health, particularly among Black and Hispanic men, who have disproportionately higher rates of multiple forms of criminal justice contact. (Widdowson, A. O., & Fisher, B. W. , 2020) Widdowson & Fishers (2020) study found that, research suggests that not only are previously arrested and incarcerated individuals more likely to experience a wide range of health problems, but they are also less likely to use preventive health care, which could potentially prevent or mitigate many health problems. The aftermath of mass incarceration is intertwined then with the economic strain on health care resources and lack thereof to those most in need.

 

Once an impoverished person is subdued to the endless cycle that is the criminal justice system, they are quickly held down by court debt. As soon as you are labeled an offender you are committed to unfair consequences that involve costly fees and fines that if not paid, result in driver’s license suspensions or property seizures. Once labeled an offender you are also denied access to health care insurance and other safety net services created for those in need. Low income communities face constant abuse from profit driven companies that exploit the criminal justice system.

Former inmates also work fewer weeks each year, earn less money and have limited upward mobility. These costs are borne by offenders’ families and communities, and they reverberate across generations. (The Pew Charitable Trusts, 2010) Family income averaged over the years a father is incarcerated is 22 percent lower than family income was the year before a father is incarcerated. Even in the year after the father is released, family income remains 15 percent lower than it was the year before incarceration. (The Pew Charitable Trusts, 2010) According to data from five census spanning from 1940-1980 by 1980 it was observed that incarceration contributed 9.5 percentage points to joblessness among young unskilled black men compare to just 2.5 percentage points among young unskilled whites.( Western, B., & Pettit, B. (2000 pg 2)  When you unearth these hinderances you can quickly see the outcomes of imprisonment.

 

 

 

 

 

Discussion

 

 

 

Conclusion

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Alexander, M. (2012). The New Jim Crow. New York, NY: New Press.

 

Bell, M. F., Bayliss, D. M., Glauert, R., & Ohan, J. L. (2018). Using linked data to investigate developmental vulnerabilities in children of convicted parents. Developmental Psychology, 54(7), 1219–1231. https://doi.org/10.1037/dev0000521.supp (Supplemental)

 

Cox, R. J. A. (n.d.). Where Do We Go from Here? Mass Incarceration and the Struggle for Civil Rights. Retrieved April 21, 2020, from https://www.epi.org/publication/where-do-we-go-from-here-mass-incarceration-and-the-struggle-for-civil-rights/

 

Criminal Justice Reform. (n.d.). Retrieved April 20, 2020, from https://www.splcenter.org/issues/mass-incarceration

 

Hiolski, K., Eisenberg, M. E., & Shlafer, R. J. (2019). Youth self-reported health and their experience of parental incarceration. Families, Systems, & Health, 37(1), 38–45. https://doi.org/10.1037/fsh0000394

 

Morsy, L., & Rothstein, R. (n.d.). Mass incarceration and children’s outcomes: Criminal justice policy is education policy. Retrieved April 20, 2020, from https://www.epi.org/publication/mass-incarceration-and-childrens-outcomes/

 

The Pew Charitable Trusts, 2010. Collateral Costs: Incarceration’s Effect on Economic Mobility. Washington, DC: The Pew Charitable Trusts

 

Udo, T. (2019). Chronic medical conditions in US adults with incarceration history. Health Psychology, 38(3), 217–225. https://doi.org/10.1037/hea0000720.supp (Supplemental)

 

 

Western, B., and Wildeman, C. 2008. “Punishment, Inequality, and the Future of Mass Incarceration.” University of Kansas Law Review. 57, 851.

 

Widdowson, A. O., & Fisher, B. W. (2020). Mass Incarceration and Subsequent Preventive Health Care: Mechanisms and Racial/Ethnic Disparities. American Journal of Public Health, 110, S145–S151. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2019.305448

 

Wright, K. (2015, June 29). Boxed In: How a Criminal Record Keeps You Unemployed For Life. Retrieved April 24, 2020, from https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/boxed-how-criminal-record-keeps-you-unemployed-life/

 

FIGURE D

White arrest rates by offense type, 1980 and 2009

	1980	2009
Homicide	5.3	2.5
Rape	9.9	6.4
Robbery	30.9	22
Aggravated assault	89.6	108.8
Simple assault	168.6	350.2
Burglary	184.8	81
Larceny	415	369
Motor vehicle theft	48.6	20.3
Weapon	53.9	38.8
Possession	182.1	367.3
Drug sale	43.7	72.5

ChartData Download data

 

FIGURE E

Black arrest rates by offense type, 1980 and 2009

	1980	2009
Homicide	35	14.8
Rape	70.7	19.7
Robbery	314.3	171.5
Aggravated assault	366.6	344.8
Simple assault	569.6	1023.8
Burglary	544.7	229
Larceny	1337.6	941.1
Motor vehicle theft	151.8	71.7
Weapon	221.5	165.4
Possession	341	1039.6
Drug sale	163.9	311.6

ChartData Download data

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

FIGURE F

Percentage change in arrests, by race, 1980–2009

	White	Black
Homicide	-53	-58
Rape	-35	-72
Robbery	-29	-45
Aggravated  assault	21	-6
Burglary	-56	-58
Larceny	-11	-30
Motor vehicle theft	-58	-53
Simple assault	108	80
Weapons	-28	-25
Drug possession	102	205
Drug sales	66	90

Percent changeWhiteBlack-100-50050100150200250HomicideRapeRobberyAggravated  assaultBurglaryLarcenyMotor vehicle theftSimple assaultWeaponsDrug possessionDrug sales

ChartData

Source: Author’s calculation from Snyder (2011) for 1980 data and FBI Uniform Crime Reporting Program data (U.S. Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Investigation 2009) for 2009