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The Place of Punishment in Twenty-First-Century America: Understanding the Persistence of Mass Incarceration

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 June 2020

Katherine Beckett  and
Lindsey Beach
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Abstract

This study analyzes prison admission and crime data to assess whether the penal system’s response to crime has continued to intensify since mass incarceration’s peak and whether the increasing use of prison in nonurban areas helps explain this trend. The findings show that penal intensity has continued to escalate despite falling crime rates and widespread efforts to reduce prison populations. Further, the justice system’s response to crime is most vigorous in nonurban, and especially rural, counties, where more felony arrests for all types of offenses result in a prison sentence. Although not new, this geographic difference has grown in recent years. While penal intensity thus varies notably within states, case outcomes also vary markedly across states. Comparative case studies of dynamics in a highly punitive state (Kentucky) and a less punitive state (Washington) show how formal law interacts with local dynamics not only by creating “statutory hammers” that are utilized by zealous prosecutors and judges but also by limiting the impact of aggressive prosecutorial practices on prison sentences.

Type
Articles
Information
Law & Social Inquiry , Volume 46 , Issue 1 , February 2021 , pp. 1 - 31
Copyright
© 2020 American Bar Foundation

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Footnotes

Many thanks to three anonymous Law & Social Inquiry reviewers for their thoughtful comments and suggestions. Analysis of the National Corrections Reporting Program (NCRP) data presented in this article is authorized by the University of Washington’s Human Subjects Division Agreement no. 08747.

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