Transcript Racial Inequality, Social Policy and Prisons: 1980-2000

Racial Stigma, Mass
Incarceration and American
Values
Glenn C. Loury
Merton P. Stoltz Professor
Brown University
February 2007
State Prisons Grow 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.”
Yet Crime Fell Sharply in 90’s
Crime/Prison Trends since 1970
Imprisonment in the United States,
1925-2004
1,600,000
500
450
Incarceration Rate
1,200,000
350
1,000,000
300
800,000
250
200
600,000
150
400,000
100
200,000
50
2001
1997
1993
1989
1985
1981
1977
1973
1969
1965
1961
1957
1953
1949
1945
1941
1937
1933
0
1929
0
1925
Prison Population
400
Incarcerated per 100,000
Total prison population
1,400,000
There is A Large and Growing Racial
Disparity in Imprisonment
Proportion Ever in Prison
by Age, Race and Birth Cohort
25
15-19
20
White Men
20-24
25-29
30-34
Black Men
15
10
5
0
Born 1945-1949 Born 1965-1969 Born 1945-1949 Born 1965-1969
Least Educated Are Hardest Hit
Race Difference in Drug Use
Race Difference in Drug Arrests
Winning the War? Drug Prices, Emergency
Treatment and Incarceration Rates: 1980-2000
New AIDS Cases (Males 1982-2001)
What if no racial disparity in incarceration? (Men)
Two Paths to Civic Incorporation
Europe (Welfare State Remedies for Social Marginality)
• Unemployment/welfare are seen as problems of “social exclusion”
• Social-democratic activism incorporate marginal into “mainstream”
versus
United States (A Quasi-Paternalism Governs the Poor)
• Social dysfunction, behavioral pathology, and personal
disorganization as the sources of marginality
• “Telling the Poor What to Do” (Help and Hassle)
– Directive, supervisory, and punitive policies
– Supports to enable preferred behavior (faith-based)
-.5
0
.5
The American Path Chosen: Change in Numbers
Incarcerated and Receiving Cash Aid:1990-2000
1990
1995
y ear
Receiv ing Cash Assistance
2000
Incarcerated
Mid-1960s: welfare policy becomes “raced” in
media coverage and the American public mind
Correlation: r = .03 (1950-65) r = .68 (1966-96)