CI: More Than 1000 Words…

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† Criminal InJustice is a weekly series devoted to taking action against inequities in the U.S. criminal justice system. Nancy A. Heitzeg, Professor of Sociology and Race/Ethnicity, is the Editor of CI. Kay Whitlock, co-author of Queer (In)Justice, is contributing editor of CI. Criminal Injustice is published every Wednesday at 6 pm.

More than 1000 Words…
by nancy a heitzeg

How many tens of trillions of words have been written here and elsewhere about the state of Criminal InJustice? How ever many, it has not been enough. Despite claims of and calls for reform, the USA remains Incarceration Nation, with a brutal system of harsh sentences, extreme conditions, with a racial dynamic that persists, perhaps because it is precisely the point.

The scope and scale are stunning. So tonight, let’s just look. The following graphics are from a new fact sheet from The Sentencing Project: Trends in US Corrections. The numbers and images speak  for themselves.

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  • class /capitalistic interests matter here too,, 
    organized labor succeeded in pushing forwrad a federal ban in inter-state sale of prison made products in the 1930s..

    https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles/workampr.pdf so the flood-gates were opened for  corporate use of de facto “free” prison labor.. and of course, the private prisin corps follow..me..
    racism and classism all wound up together — same it it ever was, slavery by another name

  • KayWhitlock

    Hmmmmm, indeed, Bob.  Fascinating.

  • exactly so Bob..

    New Jim Crow :/ —

    thanks for stopping -hope all is well with you

  • Bob Phillips

    The first “1,000 words” tells an interesting tale. Total number of incarcerations remained fairly steady, even as the overall population rose, with a slight rise through the economic hard times of the Depression, a significant decrease for most of WWII, rising slightly, steadily, not as fast as population growth until the Viet Nam War, falling again until, perhaps coincidentally, the end of the draft and the aftermath of the Black Power movement.

    Things that make you want to go “hmmm.”

  • KayWhitlock

    That’s the word.

    Abolition.

  • sometimes you just have to look at it kay — what more is there to even say??

    But Abolition……….

  • KayWhitlock

    Yes – this is how it is.  This is the society we live in.  And it will change if we determine that it will and work like hell to make it so.  Thank you for this clarity.

  • Please also see https://criticalmassprogress.com/2013/03/13/ci-smoke-and-mirrors/ andhttps://criticalmassprogress.com/2013/10/30/ci-prison-privatization-part-1-another-cautionary-tale-from-california/..
    many claims of reform — little movement in reducing mass incarceration..

    more on all this in the new year