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8 Punishment & Soc'y 5 (2006)

handle is hein.journals/punscty8 and id is 1 raw text is: Copyright @ SAGE Publications LondonThousand Oaks, CA and New Delhi. www.sagepublications.com 1462-4745; Vol 8(1): 5-32 DOI: 10.1177/1462474506059138 PUNISHMENT & SOCIETY The politics of punishing Building a state governance theory of American imprisonment variation VANESSA BARKER Florida State University, USA Abstract This article asks why some American states are more likely to rely on imprisonment in response to crime than others. Employing comparative historical methodology it brings new kinds of data to address contested questions in the field. In three case studies, it examines archival material, including citizens' letters to political leaders, transcripts from townhall meetings, internal government reports, public testimony; and it uses extensive secondary sources, including statistical data and political histories to tease out complex causal processes of crime control policy formation and its impact on imprison- ment patterns. Analyzing evidence both temporarily and spatially, the article introduces a new account of American imprisonment variation based on the democratic process itself. Key Words American states * crime control * democratic process - imprisonment - political institutions INTRODUCTION Today the USA imprisons more people than ever before (particularly people of color), outpaces all other democracies and continues to expand reliance on confinement despite the recent drop in crime. Yet, many American states diverge from this national trend. Minnesota, for example, imprisons 150 inmates per 100,000 population, New York imprisons 343 inmates per 100,000 population, both below the national rate of 429 inmates per 100,000 population and well below Texas' 692 inmates per 100,000 popu- lation or Louisiana's 803 inmates per 100,000 population (Bureau of Justice Statistics [BJS], 2004: 3). This difference is significant and we do not quite understand it. This article seeks to explain why the American states use confinement differently in response to crime.

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