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The importance of opposing viewpoints -- Introduction -- Is mass incarceration an effective system for curbing crime? -- What are the societal effects of incarceration? -- Are there problems with our prison system? -- How do we perceive crime? -- How do we handle crime? -- For further discussion -- Organizations to contact -- Bibliography of books -- Index

Cover -- Title -- Copyright -- contents -- 1 Many Prisons, Many Problems -- The Purpose of Prisons -- Incapacitation -- Deterrence -- Rehabilitation -- Incarceration: A Brief History -- Prisons in America -- Alternatives to Imprisonment -- Boot Camps -- Probation -- Diversion -- Teaching -- Work Release -- House Arrest -- 2 Prison Types and Conditions -- From Crime to Incarceration -- Different Laws, Different Prisons -- Levels of Security -- Minimum Security -- Low Security -- Medium Security -- High or Maximum Security -- Supermax -- Administrative Security -- Women's Prisons -- 3 Between the Bars: Prison Life -- Prison Staff -- Prison Wardens -- Correctional Officers -- Prison Routine -- Prison Industry: Employment Behind Bars -- Prisoner Rights -- Privileges -- Telephone -- Spousal Visits -- Educational Classes -- Work Release and Furlough -- Punishments -- 4 Issues in Incarceration -- Prison Overcrowding -- Stiffer Drug Laws -- Drug Use in Prison -- "Three Strikes" Laws -- Recidivism -- Youth Imprisonment -- Women in Prison -- Gangs -- Race -- Violence, Riots, and Abuse -- Mental Health and Medical Care -- Privatization -- 5 The Future of Incarceration in America -- Smarter Budgets -- Better Training -- Skills for the Outside -- Conclusion -- Glossary -- For More Information -- Web Sites -- For Further Reading -- Bibliography -- Index -- About the Author -- Photo Credits

Critics on both the left and the right increasingly use the term 'mass incarceration' to call attention to the unprecedented scale and inequities of the U.S. criminal legal system, and the havoc it wreaks. But even as lawmakers begin to embrace criminal justice reform, the criminal legal response to crime is harsher than ever. In this book, Katherine Beckett explains how and why mass incarceration persists despite growing recognition of its many failures, plummeting crime rates, and widespread efforts by state legislators and others to reduce prison populations. Beckett identifies three primary forces sustaining incarceration rates in this country: political dynamics around violence, resistance to criminal legal system reform in suburban and rural counties, and the failure of popular drug policy reforms to reduce the reach of the criminal legal system.

AbstractIncarceration rates have more than doubled in Australia over the past several decades, with a dramatic increase since 2010. There are many mechanisms by which these changes in imprisonment exert a causal influence on individual behaviour. The threat of incarceration can deter an individual from committing a crime. The experience of incarceration incapacitates a criminal but can also expose a prisoner to more criminal peers and reduce future legal employment opportunities. This article provides students an introduction to a rapidly expanding economics literature that empirically tests the mechanisms of incarceration and estimates its costs and benefits.

Incarceration is best understood as an extreme environment which complicates our notions of human freedom. Incarceration helps us think about freedom because it demands consideration of the relationship between body and soul, providing yet another testing ground for the longstanding metaphysical and philosophical question of what makes humans truly free. It also is a remarkable test case for how much of human experience is socially determined and how much individuals can create their own reality because prisons try to substitute external administration for self-discipline entirely. How can we account for resistance to these forms of administration?

Intro -- Table of Contents -- Series Introduction -- Chapter One: Understanding Incarceration -- Chapter Two: How Did We Get Here? -- Chapter Three: Parents in Prison -- Chapter Four: After Release -- Further Reading -- Series Glossary -- Index -- About the Author -- Photo Credits.

The expansion of the penal system has been one of the most dramatic trends in contemporary American society. A wealth of research has examined the impact of incarceration on a range of later life outcomes and has considered how the penal system has emerged as a mechanism of stratification and inequality in the United States. In this article, we review the literature from a comparatively new vein of this research: the impact of incarceration on health outcomes. We first consider the impact of incarceration on a range of individual outcomes, from chronic health conditions to mortality. We then consider outcomes beyond the individual, including the health of family members and community health outcomes. Next, we discuss mechanisms linking incarceration and health outcomes before closing with a consideration of limitations in the field and directions for future research.

In the past three decades, incarceration has become an increasingly powerful force for reproducing and reinforcing social inequalities. A new wave of sociological research details the contemporary experiment with mass incarceration in the United States and its attendant effects on social stratification. This review first describes the scope of imprisonment and the process of selection into prison. It then considers the implications of the prison boom for understanding inequalities in the labor market, educational attainment, health, families, and the intergenerational transmission of inequality. Social researchers have long understood selection into prison as a reflection of existing stratification processes. Today, research attention has shifted to the role of punishment in generating these inequalities.

This brief think piece considers the uses of "people first" language in the context of incarceration, both from a historical and contemporary perspective, and offers some thoughts about the use of this language by prison researchers. It focuses on the uses of such language in the context of disability studies and rights, and the focus on language by activists working to challenge systemic racism and abuse in prison systems in the 1960s and 1970s. It makes an argument for prison researchers to work intentionally with their use of language in keeping with broader disciplinary concerns around meaning making in prisons.

What is the best method for rehabilitating minors? -- Changing views in changing times / Alex Piquero and Laurence Steinberg -- Keeping kids close to home / Johnathan Silver -- A matter of maximizing treatment / Mayra Aguilera -- What does prison achieve? / Anna Aizer and Joseph Doyle -- Probation and other options / Barry Krisberg, Susan Marchionne, and Christopher Hartney -- The swedish solution / Erwin James -- Using a smarter approac / Andrew Day -- Should juveniles be incarcerated with adults? -- A tale of tragedy / Caitlin Curley -- The juvenile injustice system / Human Impact Partners -- Cruel and usual punishment / Andrea Wood -- The opposite effect / Shauneen Lambe -- An ideal alternative? / Shaena Fazel -- The brutal truth for imprisoned youth / Alberto Ayo and Howard Iken -- Does age matter? -- The life sentence ban and its impact / Gretchen Gavett and Sarah Childress -- Raise the age, reduce recidivism / Teresa Wiltz -- The trend against minor prosecutions / Lorelei Laird -- And what about victim rights? / National Organization of Victims of Juvenile Murderers -- When kids are responsible for their own actions / Alan Greenblatt -- Facts about the incarceration of minors -- Organizations to contact -- For further reading -- Index -- Picture credits.