Transcript Mass Incarceration and American Values

Racial Inequality, Social Policy
and Prisons: 1980-2000
Glenn C. Loury, Merton P. Stoltz
Professor of the Social Sciences
Brown University
A Radical Transformation of Policy
States’ Prison Spending Grows faster than Higher Ed
According to a 2002 report of the Justice
Policy Institute (Washington, DC):
• “During the 1980s and 1990s, state
spending on corrections grew at 6 times
the rate of state spending on higher
education, and by the close of the 1990’s,
there were nearly a third more African
American men in prison and jail than in
universities or colleges.”
Coloring the Terms of Membership:
Reinventing the Divided Citizenry
in an Era of Neoliberal Paternalism
Joe Soss
&
Sanford F. Schram
Public Policy and Racial/Ethnic Disparities
Distributive Disparities: who gets more or less, and why
Civic Disparities: how groups are positioned in relation to
one another and vis-à-vis major societal institutions
The Social Question: How can solidarity (or inclusive and
equal membership) be achieved in a society divided by
ethnic identities as well as material inequalities?
How do public policies organize governance and define
terms of membership for different social groups?
Civic Incorporation as a Goal of Poverty Policy
Europe
• Unemployment and welfare dependence as problems of
“social exclusion”
• Labor activation as a strategy for incorporation into the
societal “mainstream”
United States (The New Paternalism)
• Social dysfunction, behavioral pathology, and personal
disorganization as sources of societal marginality
• “Telling the Poor What to Do” (Help and Hassle)
– Directive, supervisory, and punitive policies
– Supports to enable preferred behavior
Race and Civic Disparities
in the History of Public Aid
Mothers’ Pensions
• White Republican Motherhood, Assimilation of
Immigrants, Exclusion of Blacks and Latinas
Social Security Act of 1935 (ADC)
• White male breadwinner: full citizen incorporated into
national social insurance
• State and local public aid: regulating labor markets,
gender roles, and racial caste
War on Poverty (1960s)
• Meaningful legal citizenship for racial minorities
• Racial conflict promoted and undermined poverty efforts
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0
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The New Poverty Governance: Change in Numbers
Incarcerated and Receiving Cash Aid:1990-2000
1990
1995
y ear
Receiv ing Cash Assistance
2000
Incarcerated
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Result Is Disparate Positioning in the TANF Program:
Exposure to Program Features by Race of Family, 2001
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.54
.58
.57
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.5
.51
.46
.4
.41
0
.2
.37
Work Requirement
Family Cap
Time Limit
White TANF Families
Full Sanction
Devolution
Black TANF Families
60
Effects are Cumulative:
Stringency of Policy Regime by Race of Family, 2001
55.384
40
50.4214
40.4605
35.8219
34.6916
31.8889
20
24.8479
17.6898
0
8.79405
0-1 Strong Reforms
2 Strong Reforms
White
Hispanic
3-5 Strong Reforms
Black
Not Just Rule Exposure, Also Local Implementation
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1. Racial Disparities in Sanctioning across Length of Spell
2. Race-Specific Mediation by Local Political Environment
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.67
.67
.64
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.59
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.4
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0
.15
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.19
.17
1-3
4-6
Black
White
7-9
Hispanic
10-12
Mid-1960s: a policy long racialized in practice becomes
racialized in media coverage and in the public mind
Correlation: r = .03 (1950-65) r = .68 (1966-96)
0
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.4
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1
Race Matters: The Effect of Black Caseload Percentage
on Welfare Policy Choices in an “Average State”
0
20
40
60
Black Percent of AFDC Recipients
Family Cap
Full-Family Sanction
80
Time Limit
Second-Order Devolution
A Huge Racial Disparity of Policy Impact
Size/Racial Composition of Overall Correctional System
Growing Extent of Correctional Supervision
Racial Disparity in Incarceration: 1982-2001
Incarceration and HIV Transmission
What if no racial disparity in incarceration? (Men)
What if Black Incarc. fixed at 1980 Level? (Men)
What if no racial disparity in incarceration? (Women)
What if Black Incarc. fixed at 1980 Level? (Women)
Impact of W.O.D. on Imprisonment
Drug Arrests in Chicago
How Effective Has the W.O.D. Been?
Drug Prices, Emergency Treatment and
Incarceration Rates: 1980-2000
The Social Integration Gap
Figure 1: Isolation of Blacks and New Immigrant Groups
Average weighted by group population for a constant set of cities.
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0.6
Isolation Index
0.5
Black
0.4
Italian
Russian
Austrian
0.3
Hungarian
0.2
Ward Data
Tract Data
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0
1910
1920
1930
1940
Year
1950
1960
1970