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Our punitive society : race, class, gender, and punishment in America / Randall G. Shelden, Morghan Vélez Young.
- Format:
- Book
- Author/Creator:
- Shelden, Randall G., 1943- author.
- Young, Morghan Vélez, author.
- Language:
- English
- Subjects (All):
- Imprisonment--United States.
- Imprisonment.
- United States.
- Punishment--United States.
- Punishment.
- Criminal justice, Administration of--United States.
- Criminal justice, Administration of.
- Sex discrimination in criminal justice administration--United States.
- Sex discrimination in criminal justice administration.
- Discrimination in criminal justice administration--United States.
- Discrimination in criminal justice administration.
- Alternatives to imprisonment.
- Physical Description:
- xv, 324 pages : illustrations, map ; 23 cm
- Edition:
- Second edition.
- Place of Publication:
- Long Grove, IL : Waveland Press, Inc., [2021]
- Summary:
- "This reader-friendly exploration of the primary forces relevant to punishment--poverty and political powerlessness--highlights the necessity for humane alternatives to our current incarceration binge. This provocative overview looks at the business of punishment and at the historical patterns of control regarding slavery, the death penalty, women, the LGBTQ community, juveniles, and supervision. The United States has the world's highest rate of incarceration--a form of punishment that separates the least privileged from the rest of society, creating populations of damaged lives. All of society pays the price for overly punitive sanctions. Equal justice is not possible in an unequal society. Up-to-date statistics illustrate the race, class, and gender inequalities in the criminal justice system. The criminal justice system has expanded for half a century. Will challenges to policing succeed in narrowing the net of social control? Will the cost of maintaining a massive system stimulate a transformation, or will stakeholders support minimal reforms that do not threaten their interests? The public is largely unaware of most of the workings of the criminal justice system. Through this engaging text, the authors hope to provide insights that encourage readers to examine the collateral effects of policies to address crime and the role of punishment."--Publisher's website.
- Contents:
- Machine generated contents note: Indices of Change
- Public Discourse on Punishment
- The Conservative Philosophy
- The Role of Religion
- Social and Political Factors
- We're the Tough Guys
- A Concluding Thought
- 1. Incarceration in the United States
- People under Criminal Justice Control
- The United States versus the World
- Expansion of the Correctional System
- Incarceration Rates
- Crime Rates and Mass Incarceration
- The Impact of Imprisonment on Crime
- "Get Tough" Policies
- Harm to Families
- Expenditures and Crime Control
- A Boom in Prison Construction
- Gulags American Style
- The Geography of Prisons
- The War on Drugs
- 2. The Punishment Business
- Connections to Crime
- The Media
- Fear of Crime
- The Crime Control Industry
- Punishing Poverty
- Employment
- Cashing in on Crime
- Prisons as a Market for Capitalism
- Reach Out and Touch Someone
- Uplifting Rural Economies?
- Downsides to Depending on Prisons
- Exploiting Prisoners to Enhance Rural Populations
- Exploiting Prison Labor
- The Privatization of Prisons
- The Market and Players
- Controversies over Private Prisons
- Repeated Failures
- Private Security: Crime Is Good for Business
- Notes
- 3. Jails: Temporary Housing for the Poor
- The Historical Context
- Debtors' Prisons
- The Elizabethan Poor Laws and the Emergence of Poorhouses
- Workhouses and Houses of Correction
- Jails in Early America
- Revival of Debtors' Prisons
- Who Is in Jail?
- Conditions in Jail
- Criminalization of the Mentally 111
- Functions of Jails: Managing the "Rabble" Class
- 4. Slavery in the Third Millennium
- Social Control, Prisoners, and Slavery
- Seeking Cheap Labor
- Maintaining Control
- Convict Leasing
- The Chain Gang Revisited
- Funneling African Americans into Prison
- Black Incarceration
- The Drug War, Minorities, and State-Organized Violence
- The New American Apartheid
- More Evidence of Slavery in the New Millennium: Disenfranchisement
- Note
- 5. Legalized Homicide: The Death Penalty
- Lynching: Forerunner to the Death Chamber
- Capital Punishment
- Modem Era of the Death Penalty
- The Race Factor
- McCleskey v. Kemp
- Deterrence
- Juveniles and the Death Penalty
- Roper v. Simmons
- Adolescent Brain Development
- The Death Penalty and the Mentally Disabled
- Wrongful Convictions
- The Machinery of Death
- The Expense of Executions
- Politics and the Death Penalty
- An Arbitrary and Flawed Policy
- 6. Punishing Women
- A Brief History of Women's Prisons
- The Reformatory
- The Role of Racism
- Women in the Criminal Justice System
- Arrests
- Community Supervision
- Women in Jail
- Women in Prison
- Characteristics of Incarcerated Women
- Demographics
- Incarcerated Mothers
- Pregnancy
- Institutional Life
- Sentencing Patterns
- Mandatory Sentencing
- Sentencing Commission Guidelines
- Life Sentences
- Criminalizing Pregnancy
- Violence Against Women
- 7. Criminalizing LGBTQ Lives
- State-Sanctioned Violence
- Targeting the LGBTQ Community
- Arrest
- Prosecuted Victims of Hate Crimes
- Anti-Sodomy Laws
- Incarcerated LGBTQ Individuals
- State Leadership and Oppression
- The Electorate
- Chiefs and Sheriffs
- Judges and Prosecutors
- Reform Voices
- 8. Punishing Kids
- Houses of Refuge
- Court Decisions and Effects
- Ex Parte Crouse
- People v. Turner
- Challenges to the Punitive Nature of Juvenile Justice
- Unreasonable Searches and Seizures
- Capital Punishment and Life without Parole (LWP)
- Punishing Youths: Abuses Inside
- Detention Centers
- Reception and Diagnostic Centers
- Long-Term Secure Facilities
- Conditions of Confinement
- Funneling Youth into the "Pipeline" to Prison
- LGBTQ Youth in the Juvenile Justice System
- Alternatives to Punishing Children
- The Missouri Model
- Detention Diversion Advocacy Project
- Juvenile Collaborative Reentry Unit (JCRU)
- California
- 9. Community Supervision: Punishment without Walls
- History of Probation and Parole
- Probation
- Parole
- Feeding Mass Incarceration
- Set Up to Fail
- Fines, Fees, and Restitution
- Length of Time Under Supervision
- Array of Requirements
- Few Procedural Rights
- Disproportionate Sanctions
- Caseloads
- Collateral Punishments
- Denial of Welfare Benefits
- Housing Instability
- Employment Stigma
- Education Barriers
- Disenfranchisement
- Criminal Record Relief
- 10. Is There a Better Way?
- Addressing the Problem of Social Inequality
- Ending the War on Drugs
- Curbing Prosecutorial Power
- Expanding Diversion Programs, Avoiding Net Widening
- Labeling Theory
- A Community Based Example
- Gender-Responsive Strategies
- Broad-Based National Strategies to Reduce Crime
- We Need a New Paradigm
- The Power of Paradigms
- New Paradigms in Practice: Restorative and Community Justice
- A New Paradigm Requires New Discourse
- Some Closing Thoughts.
- Notes:
- Includes bibliographical references (pages 281-314) and index.
- Local Notes:
- Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Rosengarten Family Fund.
- ISBN:
- 9781478639787
- 1478639784
- OCLC:
- 1226456200
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