Creativity in Confinement

doi:10.1017/CBO9780511761225.010

10 - Creativity in Confinement

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012

Jennie Kaufman Singer

Edited by

James C. Kaufman and

Jennie Kaufman Singer: Affiliation:
California State University, Sacramento
David H. Cropley: Affiliation:
University of South Australia
Arthur J. Cropley: Affiliation:
University of Hamburg
James C. Kaufman: Affiliation:
California State University at San Bernardino
Mark A. Runco: Affiliation:
University of Georgia

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Summary

The number of American citizens who are incarcerated each year has been increasing for over a century. This number has increased dramatically in the last 20 years as the United States has developed a mind-set of crime control as the main goal of its sentencing laws. Other countries share the American use of incarceration to penalize those who break the law and are considered dangerous. However, the United States incarcerates more citizens and for longer sentences than any other developed nation (Schmalleger & Smykla, 2008). Legislation such as the “three strikes law” and the federal “truth in sentencing” law may help American citizens to feel safe, but it has contributed to America having the largest prison population per capita in the world (Walsh & Ellis, 2007). Numbers of both men and women who are in state prisons and jails are increasing every year. The Bureau of Justice Statistics found that on June 30, 2007, over 115,000 women and almost 1½ million men were incarcerated in state or federal prisons. The Bureau of Justice Statistics estimates that over 509 people are sentenced as prisoners per 100,000 U.S. residents. This is an increase from their latest figure at year-end 2006. The Bureau of Justice Statistics indicated that local jails had also increased their populations from 2006 to mid-year 2007 and held over 766,000 individuals who were awaiting trial, serving a sentence of one year or under, or waiting for a prison bed to become available.

Type: Chapter
Information: The Dark Side of Creativity , pp. 177 - 203

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511761225.010 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2010

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