Why are so many Americans in prison? Right now, there are 2.3 million Americans held in US prisons. That’s a HUGE number, relative to the overall US population. The US makes up just 5% of the world’s population, but we hold 25% of the world’s prison population. Put another way, 1 in 4 people held in prison around the world is an American citizen. And a disproportionate number of these inmates are people of color, mostly African American and Latino. Furthermore, this phenomenon of mass incarceration is a relatively recent one. In 1970 the incarceration rate in the US was roughly 150 people per 100,000. In 2017 it’s well over 700 people per 100,000! How did we get here? What happened around 1970 that sent us down this path?
To answer these questions, I speak with historian Elizabeth Hinton, author of the book, From the War on Poverty to the War on Crime: The Making of Mass Incarceration in America (Harvard University Press). She’ll help us see the key public policy decisions regarding crime and criminal justice — and the assumptions about race and poverty that shaped them — that caused the US prison population to explode after 1970.
About Elizabeth Hinton
Further Reading
Elizabeth Hinton, From the War on Poverty to the War on Crime: The Making of Mass Incarceration in America (Harvard University Press)
Michelle Alexander, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness (2010)
Todd R. Clear and Natasha A. Frost, The Punishment Imperative: The Rise and Failure of Mass Incarceration in America (2013)
Jonathan Simon, Mass Incarceration on Trial: A Remarkable Court Decision and the Future of Prisons in America (2014)
Carimah Townes, “The True Cost of Mass Incarceration Exceeds $1 Trillion,” Sept 12, 2016 www.ThinkProgress.org
Peter Wagner and Bernadette Rabuy, “Mass Incarceration: The Whole Pie 2016,” March 14, 2016 www.PrisonPolicy.org
Michelle Ye Hee Lee, “Yes, U.S. locks people up at a higher rate than any other country,” Washington Post, July 7, 2015
Music for this Episode
Jay Graham, ITPL Intro (JayGMusic.com)
Kevin McCleod, “Impact Moderato” (Free Music Archive)
The Womb, “I Hope It Hurts” (Free Music Archive)
Hyson, Signals (Free Music Archive)
Philipp Weigl, “Even When We Fall” (Free Music Archive)
The Bell, “I Am History” (Free Music Archive)
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