By: Karim Ismaili
Abstract by: Christopher Pamboukes
In this article, Karim Ismaili examines why the imprisonment
rate in the United States has risen since 1973. He argues
that the turbulence following the social transformations of the
late 1960s and early 1970s caused a backlash against “perceived
inadequacies of the welfare state.” Liberal crime policy thus
came under attack. Ismaili also analyzes the connection
between the media’s sensationalized coverage of crime in the 1970s
and the steady widespread increase in the fear of crime. The
public's heightened fears coupled with widespread dissatisfaction
with liberal criminal justice policy led to the emergence of a “New
Right” alternative approach to the crime problem. This
approach, stressing “expressive policies and punishments” over
rehabilitative efforts, resulted in an increase in zero-tolerance
laws and mandatory sentences.
The article first investigates the dynamics of contemporary
prison growth. It divides the prison growth following 1973
into three separate periods. The first period, from 1973 to
1985, was marked by an increase in incarceration of marginal
felons. During the second period, from 1985 to 1992, there
were dramatic shift towards incarceration for drug-related
offenses. Finally, in the third period, from 1993 to the
present, imprisonment rates continue to grow as crime rates
decline. But perhaps the rise in the imprisonment rate is
more attributed to changes in sentencing policy than to increases
in crime.
Next, the article examines the implications of mass imprisonment
on society. Mass imprisonment has high social costs,
including the diverting of funds from education and social policy
budgets, the breaking up of families, and “the emergence of a crime
control industry whose raw material is crime.” On balance
then, the decline of liberal criminal justice policy and its
replacement with a relentless war on crime has proved
counterproductive.