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Dignifying Madness: Rethinking Commitment Law In An Age Of Mass Incarceration, Jonathan Simon, Stephen A. Rosenbaum

University of Miami Law Review

Modern nation-states have been trapped in recurring cycles of incarcerating and emancipating residents with psychiatric disabilities. New cycles of enthusiasm for incarceration generally commence with well-defined claims about the evils of allowing “the mad” to remain at liberty and the benefits incarceration would bring to the afflicted. A generation or two later, at most, reports of terrible conditions in institutions circulate and new laws follow, setting high burdens for those seeking to imprison and demanding exacting legal procedures with an emphasis on individual civil liberties. Today, we seem to be arriving at another turn in the familiar cycle. A growing …

How Church Commitment To At-Risk Black Male Youth Helps Prevent Them From Being Incarcerated At Percentage Rates Higher Than Other Races, Barbara Pierson

Masters Theses

Between the years 2006 and 2014, the percentage of young Black men between the ages of 13 and 21 in Ohio prisons increased more than any other race according to statistics given by the Department of Youth Services (DYS) located in the city of Columbus, Ohio. While the entire Black race only consisted of 12.5% of the population in Ohio, 56.7% of Black males were imprisoned as opposed to 43% of White males, and 3% of all other races that were incarcerated during the same time period. Young people are more involved with the justice system which allows a greater …

Smart Decarceration: Guiding Concepts For An Era Of Criminal Justice Transformation, Matthew W. Epperson, Carrie Pettus-Davis

Center for Social Development Research

The era of mass incarceration, which made the United States the world’s leading jailer, appears to be coming to an end. What is likely to follow is an era of decarceration, aimed at reducing the incarcerated population. In this working paper, we discuss the problems associated with mass incarceration and the current climate that is likely to make decarceration a reality. We discuss the importance of developing a “smart decarceration” approach—one that is effective, sustainable, and socially just. We then articulate interrelated goals for the era of decarceration, and offer guiding concepts that will help to meet these goals through …

Visualizing Abolition: Two Graphic Novels And A Critical Approach To Mass Incarceration For The Composition Classroom, Michael Sutcliffe

SANE journal: Sequential Art Narrative in Education

This article outlines two graphic novels and an accompanying activity designed to unpack complicated intersections between racism, poverty, and (d)evolving criminal-legal policy. Over 2 million adults are held in U.S. prison facilities, and several million more are under custodial supervision, and it has become clearly unsustainable. In the last decade, there has been a shift in media conversations about criminality, yet only a few suggest decreasing our reliance upon incarceration. In meaningfully different ways, the two novels trace the development of incarceration from its roots in slavery to its contemporary anti-democratic iteration and offer an underpublicized alternative.

Critical and community …

Supporting Probation Youth : An Examination Of Services And Access To Services Provided : A Project Based Upon An Independent Investigation Of San Francisco Bay Mental Health Agencies, Marjorie R. Gomez

Theses, Dissertations, and Projects

This study explored a sample of the San Francisco Bay Area agencies providing mental health services to probation youth in hopes of looking at best practices and what barriers and facilitators there are for youth to access services. This study surveyed 19 program leads of agencies that have among their clients, youth on probation. The mixed methods survey included 28 questions covering topics such as services provided, funding sources, client demographics, program structure, coordination with other support services, post-program evaluation and barriers and facilitators to accessing services. The findings demonstrated that these agencies were mostly funded through MediCal contracts and …

Prisonland: Environment, Society, And Mass Incarceration On New York's Northern Frontier, 1845-1999, Clarence Jefferson Hall

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

My dissertation explores the social experience and environmental politics of mass incarceration in five communities in New York's Adirondack Park, with a focus on the period 1975-1999. Historians, sociologists, and criminologists have enhanced our understanding of criminal law and its impacts on lawbreakers, their families, and communities. By the same token, environmental historians have expanded our knowledge of the dynamic forces that contributed to the making of parks and recreational spaces across the United States. With rare exceptions, scholars in these fields have left unexplored one of the consequences of postindustrial decline, namely, the mass incarceration of predominantly urban, non-white …

Decriminalizing Mental Illness: The Need For Treatment Over Incarceration Before Prisons Become The New Asylums For The Mentally Ill, Rebecca L. Brown

Psychology Summer Fellows

Currently, US prisons are home to 10 times more mentally ill individuals than state psychiatric hospitals. Instead of treating those with mental illness, an extremely vulnerable population is being thrown behind bars. Mental illness is often exacerbated during incarceration, leaving inmates much sicker than when they entered. Moreover, upon discharge mentally ill inmates have virtually no support, making recidivism almost inevitable. This lack of treatment has devastating consequences for the mentally ill as well as the community at large. Removing the mentally ill from jails and prisons would reduce recidivism, increase public safety and save money.

The current research explores …

Third Strike Or Merely A Foul Tip?: The Gross Disproportionality Of Lockyer V. Andrade, Joy M. Donham

Akron Law Review

“The United States is besieged by an incarceration crisis which far surpasses that of any other nation.” Scholars attribute the increasing prison population to changes in sentencing policy. Politicians have used the public pressure resulting from its fear of violence to pass legislation that supports this change in policy and creates more fixed sentencing structures.

California’s Three Strikes law (Three Strikes), an example of such a structure, has resulted in the largest increase in the prison population. Public pressure, spurred by the fear of violent criminals being released and committing the same crimes again and again, led to the enactment …

The Power And Importance Of Emotional Investment In Scholarly Research: An Ethnographic Account Of San Luis Obispo County Juvenile Hall, Claire E. Shannon

Communication Studies

No abstract provided.

Beliefs About Children Who Have Been Incarcerated: What Do Parents Know?, Aryriana Alexander

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to explore the relationship between traditional African-American American parenting and the overrepresentation of African-Americans in America’s jails and prisons. This qualitative study utilized semi-structured interviews of twelve parents who have had a child incarcerated in their adult life to gather data. Study participants were asked their experiences with several traditional happenings, supported by research, in some traditional African-American households. Topics discussed included religion, spanking, and single parenthood. The study found that many of the traditional happenings of African-American parenting occurred within the homes of parents with children who were incarcerated, which supports previous research. …

Beyond The Right To Counsel: Increasing Notice Of Collateral Consequences, Brian M. Murray

University of Richmond Law Review

This article responds to these questions by focusing on the primary roots of this justice issue, namely the prevalence of guiltypleas and the continued efforts of legislatures to increase the life- long price of a conviction. Part I begins with a discussion of these practical realities within the criminal justice system. Part II then examines the law of guilty pleas under the Fifth Amendment, including constitutional standards for valid pleas, and how current jurisprudence fails to account for the collateral consequences mentioned in Part I. Part II also discusses the right to effective assistance of counsel under the Sixth Amendment, …

Backsliding: The United States Supreme Court, Shelby County V. Holder And The Dismantling Of Voting Rights Act Of 1965, Bridgette Baldwin

Journal of Race, Gender, and Ethnicity

No abstract provided.

Sexual Hiv Risk Among Male Parolees And Their Female Partners: The Relate Project, Megan Comfort, Olga Grinstead Reznick, Samantha E. Dilworth, Diane Binson, Lynae Darbes, Torsten B. Neilands

Journal of Health Disparities Research and Practice

Background: The massively disproportionate impact of America’s prison boom on communities of color has raised questions about how incarceration may affect health disparities, including disparities in HIV. Primary partners are an important source of influence on sexual health. In this paper, we investigate sexual HIV risk among male-female couples following a man’s release from prison.

Methods: We draw upon data from the Relate Project, a novel cross-sectional survey of recently released men and their female partners in Oakland and San Francisco, California (N=344). Inferential analyses use the actor-partner model to explore actor and partner effects on sexual HIV risk outcomes. …

Childbirth In Chains: A Report On The Cruel But Not So Unusual Practice Of Shackling Incarcerated Pregnant Females In The United States, Alison Smock

Tennessee Journal of Race, Gender, & Social Justice

No abstract provided.

From Mass Incarceration To Smart Decarceration, Carrie Pettus-Davis, Matthew W. Epperson

Center for Social Development Research

American Academy of Social Work and Social Welfare Grand Challenges Initiative Concept Paper

Stemming The Tide Of Aboriginal Incarceration, Miriam Kelly, Hilde Tubex

The University of Notre Dame Australia Law Review

Western Australia’s prison population has the highest rate of Aboriginal over-representation in Australia. Research on the criminogenic effect of imprisonment suggests that the use of imprisonment as a deterrent to future offending is not empirically supported and that imprisonment may in fact contribute to further offending. Consequently, this article explores theoretical debates surrounding penality as a way to inform alternative crime control strategies to imprisonment. It will be argued that any strategy to reduce Aboriginal imprisonment rates could benefit from a perspective that views Aboriginal imprisonment as a manifestation of Aboriginal resistance to settler colonial dominance.

The Argument For Moving Away From Residential Placement For Most Juvenile Offenders, Marika Dawkins

Contemporary Issues in Juvenile Justice

No abstract provided.

Essays In The Economics Of Crime And Discrimination, Michael George Mueller-Smith

Dissertation Awards

This dissertation studies marginalized populations in the United States and Western countries, with a broad focus on how legal and social institutions affect individual economic outcomes and wellbeing. The first chapter examines the impacts of incarceration on criminal defendants in Houston, Texas, documenting patterns of worsening criminality, diminished earnings and social detachment after exposure to the prison system. The second chapter develops a framework to consider the interplay between discrimination and concealment of minority status in the context of sexual orientation and shows empirical evidence from the United States on the large magnitudes of concealment costs. The third chapter considers …

Employment After Incarceration : Exploring The Influence Of Cumulative Disadvantage On Multiple Employment Outcomes, Amanda D. Emmert

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Prisons and jails across the Unites States release more than 600,000 inmates each year. Scholars have posed and addressed numerous concerns for the reintegration outcomes and prospects that face ex-inmates. Yet, little is known about the cumulative employment and economic disadvantages faced by ex-inmates who experienced their first incarceration at early ages or experience multiple incarcerations throughout their lives. Using event history and fixed effects analyses on longitudinal data from the Rochester Youth Development Study (RYDS), this project explores employment acquisition, employment tenure, employment stability, and use of public assistance for signs of differential ex-inmate disadvantages. While cumulative disadvantage is …

One Significant Step: How Reforms To Prison Districts Begin To Address Political Inequality, Erika L. Wood

Articles & Chapters

No abstract provided.

Me And Mr. Jones: A Systems-Based Analysis Of A Catastrophic Defense Outcome, Pamela R. Metzger

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

Leo S. Jones spent four months in jail, accused of a probation that had long since expired. His incarceration was illegal. It was also preventable.

In this essay, I describe the unique data collection project that identified Mr. Jones’ case. Then, I analyze the various individual, institutional, and systemic practices that contributed to Mr. Jones’ illegal incarceration. I show how an investigation of Mr. Jones’ case led to the discovery of widespread latent errors that may have adversely affected innumerable other detainees. I conclude by explaining what this case reveals about how data collection and analysis can improve public defender …

The Interaction Effects Of Subjective And Structural Factors On Crime Among Formerly Incarcerated Males, Christopher Alvin Veeh

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The high rate of recidivism in the over 600,000 individuals who return from incarceration each year is an important social problem facing U.S. society and the criminal justice system. Efforts undertaken so far early in the 21st century to address the problem of recidivism in the formerly incarcerated, particularly prison reentry programs, have produced disappointing results at reducing the rate of recidivism. Therefore, there is a need to identify new ways for prison reentry programs to reduce recidivism among individuals recently returned from prison, and social work with its person-in-environment perspective can make an important contribution through conducting research to …

Potential Partnerships: Progressive Criminology, Grassroots Organizations, And Social Justice, Tim Goddard, Randolph R. Myers, Kaitlyn J. Robinson

Sociology & Criminal Justice Faculty Publications

Criminologists around the globe are writing about the disproportionate criminalization of minority groups and - in the US in particular - about racial disproportionality in all aspects of the criminal justice system. This wealth of knowledge in progressive criminology rarely animates reform efforts: it has had little impact on formal policymaking, and has failed to animate the work of grassroots activists engaged in the fight for justice system reform. Yet given the increased criminalization of young people in poor communities - and the possibilities for change at this very moment - progressive criminological ideas have never been more important. We …

No Reason To Blame Liberals (Or, The Unbearable Lightness Of Perversity Arguments), Margo Schlanger

Reviews

In addition to the current extraordinary number of people behind American bars, the other key feature of our current carceral state is the very high concentration of non-whites in that population. That concentration of non-whites has grown significantly since the 1960s, when whites constituted nearly two thirds of American prison population; today, they are only a bit over one-third. Since 72% of Americans are white, the distinction in terms of incarceration rate is far more stark: among white men, the current imprisonment rate (counting only sentenced prisoners) is 4.7/1000; among Latino men it is two-and-a-half times that (11.3/1000); and among …

Detention Center To Home School: The Path Of Transition, Sarah Hogeveen

Dissertations

This study examined the way a juvenile detention center and local feeder high schools worked in conjunction with each other to educate students that are incarcerated and then transition back to their home school. The goal of this study was to determine the adequacy of the transition/re-entry plan and then develop a template to assist high schools in the transition process. The transition/re-entry process into the home high school can be difficult and often involves several agencies. The evidence has suggested that there is not a solid transition plan available or in place for this process. This evidence allowed for …

Improving Economic Sanctions In The States, Jessica M. Eaglin

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Neo-­‐Colonial Criminology: Quantifying Silence, Antje Deckhert

African Journal of Criminology and Justice Studies

In Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United States of America, Indigenous peoples continue to experience incarceration at markedly disproportionate rates. Some scholars have criticised criminology for contributing to this social problem by marginalising Indigenous peoples in research and research publications. This study is a first attempt to quantitatively evaluate the (de)colonised state of contemporary criminology. It involves a comprehensive review of research on ‘Indigenous peoples in the criminal justice context’, which has been undertaken in aforesaid countries and was published in elite criminology journals over the past decade (2001-­‐2010). The findings reveal that publication rates on the subject are …

Policy Partners In The Neoliberal Age: Corresponding School And Prison Reforms Since 1970, Jeremy Paul Benson

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation is a comparative policy study of changes in education and incarceration of the past 40 years. Following national and global trends, New York City saw public school and carceral policies converge as the city experienced massive deindustrialization and governmental cutbacks while its political economy shifted to one driven by finance, investment, real estate, and the growth of a low-wage service sector. These changes dramatically increased economic inequality across racial lines, and spurred the intimate linkage of public education and state incarceration as institutional tools for the mass management of low-income communities of color. Following from a growing policy …

The Fatherhood Factor: The Impact Of The Father-Child Relationship On The Social, Interpersonal, And Recidivism Risk Factors Of Previously Incarcerated Men, Larissa A. Maley

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

Of the men who return home from prison, nearly 7 out of 10 will be re-arrested and sent back within 3 years of their release (Travis, Solomon, & Waul, 2001). This trend has large- scale implications, not just for individuals, but for their families and communities as well. Clearly, understanding the factors that contribute to a man’s success or failure in staying out of prison is extremely important in constructing policy and programs to assist these at-risk individuals and communities. Of the few studies that have explored the lives of previously incarcerated men, some have found fatherhood to be a …

The Revolving Door Pattern Of Jail Incarceration And Homelessness And Its Influence On Mortality And Morbidity Among New York City Adults, Sungwoo Lim

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Objectives

The purpose of this dissertation study was to identify timing and sequencing of jail incarceration and homelessness by utilizing sequence analysis and to test whether a particular trajectory contributes to mortality risk and discontinuity of HIV care.

Methods

The main data source was an existing matched dataset, constructed using administrative data from the New York City (NYC) Departments of Health and Mental Hygiene, Correction, and Homeless Services. The study cohort consisted of 15,620 NYC adults with recent histories of both jail incarceration and homelessness. Monthly experiences of jail incarceration, homelessness, and community-dwelling in 2001-03 were summarized into trajectory groups …