Caught: The Prison State and the Lockdown of American Politics - Softcover

Gottschalk, Marie

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0691170835 ISBN 13: 9780691170831

Verlag: Princeton University Press, 2016

Inhaltsangabe

A major reappraisal of crime and punishment in America The huge prison buildup of the past four decades has few defenders, yet reforms to reduce the numbers of those incarcerated have been remarkably modest. Meanwhile, an ever-widening carceral state has sprouted in the shadows, extending its reach far beyond the prison gate. It sunders families and communities and reworks conceptions of democracy, rights, and citizenship-posing a formidable political and social challenge. In Caught, Marie Gottschalk examines why the carceral state remains so tenacious in the United States. She analyzes the shortcomings of the two dominant penal reform strategies-one focused on addressing racial disparities, the other on seeking bipartisan, race-neutral solutions centered on reentry, justice reinvestment, and reducing recidivism. With a new preface evaluating the effectiveness of recent proposals to reform mass incarceration, Caught offers a bracing appraisal of the politics of penal reform.

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Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Marie Gottschalk is professor of political science at the University of Pennsylvania. A former journalist and editor, she was a member of the National Academy of Sciences Committee on the Causes and Consequences of High Rates of Incarceration. She is the author of, among other works, The Prison and the Gallows: The Politics of Mass Incarceration in America and The Shadow Welfare State: Labor, Business, and the Politics of Health Care in the United States.

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"This is the most comprehensive, synthetic, and compelling account of what is driving penal trends in America today. For contemporary scholars and activists, Caught is certain to become a common starting point for future debates about what direction policy reform and social activism should take."--Jonathan Simon, author of Governing through Crime: How the War on Crime Transformed American Democracy and Created a Culture of Fear

"[A]cademic but accessible, and it has an urgency to it. . . . A needed cry for justice."--Kirkus Reviews

"This is a brilliantly framed, intellectually courageous analysis of a pivotal and problematic period in American criminal justice history. Gottschalk offers unique and penetrating insights into the complex forces that led to the creation of our nation's massive carceral state. Her research is meticulous, the scope of her vision is sweeping, and her criticism is unflinching. Absolutely essential reading for understanding this profound transformation of American society."--Craig W. Haney, University of California, Santa Cruz

"Gottschalk's book is a tour de force. Caught constitutes a searing critique of current incarceration policies and prevailing approaches to prison reform. It is brilliantly argued, breathtakingly capacious in its informational reach, and intellectually bold. A stunning achievement."--Mary Fainsod Katzenstein, Cornell University

"In this pathbreaking and meticulous book, Gottschalk traces the rapid development of highly targeted mass imprisonment since the early 1970s. Drawing links between the prison buildup and a range of policies that have increased state control and surveillance beyond the prison, Caught sheds new light on the relationship between criminal justice and the ideological shape, material conditions, and institutional structure of the broader political economy."--Nicola Lacey, London School of Economics

"Caught makes clear that we have totally underestimated just how devastating an impact today's massive carceral state has had on our nation, and shines much-needed light on why it has been so immune to attempts at reform. Most importantly, this book offers vital new perspective on what it actually will take to unmake this criminal justice crisis."--Heather Ann Thompson, University of Michigan

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Caught

The Prison State and the Lockdown of American Politics

By Marie Gottschalk

PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS

Copyright © 2015 Marie Gottschalk
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-0-691-17083-1

Contents

List of Figures, xi, 
List of Abbreviations, xiii, 
Preface to the Paperback Edition, xv, 
CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION The Prison State and the Lockdown of American Politics, 1, 
PART I THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF PENAL REFORM, 23, 
CHAPTER TWO SHOW ME THE MONEY The Great Recession and the Great Confinement, 25, 
CHAPTER THREE SQUARING THE POLITICAL CIRCLE The New Political Economy of the Carceral State, 48, 
CHAPTER FOUR WHAT SECOND CHANCE? Reentry and Penal Reform, 79, 
CHAPTER FIVE CAUGHT AGAIN Justice Reinvestment and Recidivism, 98, 
PART II THE POLITICS OF RACE AND PENAL REFORM, 117, 
CHAPTER SIX IS MASS INCARCERATION THE "NEW JIM CROW"? Racial Disparities and the Carceral State, 119, 
CHAPTER SEVEN WHAT'S RACE GOT TO DO WITH IT? Bolstering and Challenging the Carceral State, 139, 
PART III THE METASTASIZING CARCERAL STATE, 163, 
CHAPTER EIGHT SPLIT VERDICT The Non, Non, Nons and the "Worst of the Worst", 165, 
CHAPTER NINE THE NEW UNTOUCHABLES The War on Sex Offenders, 196, 
CHAPTER TEN CATCH AND KEEP The Criminalization of Immigrants, 215, 
CHAPTER ELEVEN THE PRISON BEYOND THE PRISON The Carceral State and Growing Political and Economic Inequalities in the United States, 241, 
CHAPTER TWELVE BRING IT ON The Future of Penal Reform, the Carceral State, and American Politics, 258, 
Acknowledgments, 283, 
Notes, 285, 
Select Bibliography, 411, 
Index, 439, 

CHAPTER 1

Introduction

The Prison State and the Lockdown of American Politics

To see what is in front of one's nose needs a constant struggle.

— GEORGE ORWELL

Fifteen years ago, mass imprisonment was largely an invisible issue in the United States. Since then, criticism of the country's extraordinary incarceration rate has become widespread across the political spectrum. The huge prison buildup of the past four decades has few ardent defenders today. But reforms to reduce the number of people in jail and prison have been remarkably modest so far.

Meanwhile, a tenacious carceral state has sprouted in the shadows of mass imprisonment and has been extending its reach far beyond the prison gate. It includes not only the country's vast archipelago of jails and prisons, but also the far-reaching and growing range of penal punishments and controls that lies in the never-never land between the prison gate and full citizenship. As it sunders families and communities and radically reworks conceptions of democracy, rights, and citizenship, the carceral state poses a formidable political and social challenge.

The reach of the carceral state today is truly breathtaking. It extends well beyond the estimated 2.2 million people sitting in jail or prison today in the United States. It encompasses the more than eight million people — or in one in twenty-three adults — who are under some form of state control, including jail, prison, probation, parole, community sanctions, drug courts, immigrant detention, and other forms of government supervision. It also includes the millions of people who are booked into jail each year — perhaps nearly seven million — and the estimated 7.5 percent of all adults who are felons or ex-felons.

The carceral state directly shapes, and in some cases deforms, the lives of tens of millions of people who have never served a day in jail or prison or been arrested. An estimated eight million minors — or one in ten children — have had an incarcerated parent. Two million young children currently have a mother or father serving time in state or federal prison. Millions of people reside in neighborhoods and communities that have been depopulated and upended as so many of their young men and women have been sent away to prison during what should be the prime of their lives. Hundreds of rural communities have chased after the illusion that constructing a prison or jail will jump-start their ailing economies.

The problem of the carceral state is no longer confined to the prison cell and prison yard and to poor urban communities and minority groups — if it ever was. The U.S. penal system has grown so extensive that it has begun to metastasize. It has altered how key governing institutions and public services and benefits operate — everything from elections to schools to public housing. The carceral state also has begun to distort essential demographic, political, and socioeconomic databases, leading to misleading findings about trends in vital areas such as economic growth, political participation, unemployment, poverty, and public health.

The carceral state has been radically remaking conceptions of citizenship as it creates a large and permanent group of political, economic, and social outcasts. It has been cleaving off wide swaths of people in the United States from the promise of the American Dream or "American Creed" — the faith that everyone has an inalienable right to freedom, justice, and equal opportunities to get ahead, and that everyone stands equal before the law. The political consequences of this are potentially explosive because the American Dream arguably has been the country's central ideology, serving as a kind of societal glue holding otherwise disparate groups together.

Millions have been condemned to "civil death," denied core civil liberties and social benefits because of a criminal conviction. An estimated six million people have been disenfranchised either temporarily or permanently because of a criminal conviction. This is about 2.5 percent of the total U.S. voting age population, or one in forty adults. Millions of Americans have been denied public benefits like student loans, food stamps, and public housing because of their criminal records. Likewise, owing to a prior run-in with the law, many people are ineligible to receive state licenses for a range of occupations — from hairdressing to palm reading to nursing. Many incarcerated mothers and fathers are at risk of having their parental rights severed, sometimes after they have been behind bars for as little as fifteen months.

For those seeking to dismantle the carceral state, the key challenge is not trying to determine what specific sentencing and other reforms would slash the number of people in jail and prison. The real challenge is figuring out how to create a political environment that is more receptive to such reforms and how to make the far-reaching consequences of the carceral state into a leading political and public policy issue.

This book analyzes why the carceral state, with its growing number of outcasts, remains so tenacious in the United States. It examines the shortcomings of the dominant penal reform strategies and lays out an alternative path to dismantling the carceral state. In doing so, I use the problem of the carceral state as a lens to examine the wider pathologies that have captured American politics today and are preventing the country from solving its most pressing problems.

The Leading Penal Reform Strategies

The ways in which elites, interest groups, the media, and social movements define and frame an issue can powerfully influence not only public opinion but also public policy. Under certain circumstances, framing an issue in a new way can release tremendous new forces that transform the public debate....

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Princeton University Press
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2016
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 0691170835
• ISBN 13: 9780691170831
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 500
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Princeton University Press; https://press.princeton.edu/books; ; 7th Floor, New South Building; PRINCETON; NJ; 8544; USA
• Verantwortliche Person: gpsr@libri.de; gpsr@libri.de; ; Europaallee 1; Bad Hersfeld; 36244; Deutschland