Punishment and Inequality in America

Over the last thirty years, the prison population in the United States has increased more than sevenfold, including vastly disproportionate numbers of minorities and people with little education. Almost 60 percent of black male high school dropouts in their early thirties have spent time in prison. Once, college or the military were the formative institutions in young men's lives, but prison has increasingly usurped that role in many communities. While many people support the increase in incarceration because of reductions in crime in the 1990s, the author shows that the swelling prison population only explains one-tenth of the fall in crime, and has come at a significant cost. The strong relationship between incarceration and severely dampened economic prospects for former inmates is also explored.