About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline
LOG IN
LOG IN

56 Stan. L. Rev. 1271 (2003-2004)
The Social and Moral Cost of Mass Incarceration in African American Communities

handle is hein.journals/stflr56 and id is 1285 raw text is: THE SOCIAL AND MORAL COST OF MASS INCARCERATION IN AFRICAN AMERICAN COMMUNITIES Dorothy E. Roberts* INTRODUCTION: REFRAMING THE ISSUE OF RACE AND IMPRISONMENT .............. 1272 A. The Distinctive Features of African American Mass Incarceration.......... 1274 1. Total numbers incarcerated.................................................................... 1274 2. Rate of incarceration.............................................................................. 1274 3. The spatial concentration of incarceration ........................................... 1275 B. The New Direction of Prison Research...................................................... 1276 1. Assessing the harm of mass incarceration v. identifying the cause of racial disparities................................................................................................... 1277 2. Community v. individual as the focus of research ................................. 1279 I. THEORIES OF COMMUNITY HARM.................................................................... 1281 A. Mass Imprisonment Damages Social Networks......................................... 1281 B. Mass Imprisonment Distorts Social Norms ............................................... 1285 C. Mass Imprisonment Destroys Social Citizenship ....................................... 1291 1. Felon disenfranchisement....................................................................... 1291 2. Labor m arket exclusion ......................................................................... 1293 3. Civic isolation......................................................................................... 1294 II. THE MORAL SIGNIFICANCE OF COMMUNITY HARM ....................................... 1297 A. Moving Beyond the Prison-Crime Nexus................................................... 1297 B. Mass Imprisonment and Political Subordination ...................................... 1298 C. Rethinking the Justifications for Punishment............................................. 1300 CONCLUSION....................................................................................................... 1304 * Kirkland and Ellis Professor, Northwestern University School of Law; faculty fellow, Institute for Policy Research. Matthew Lyon provided excellent research assistance for this Article. I presented a draft of this Article at workshops at the Institute for Policy Research and Florida State University College of Law and am grateful to participants for their comments. I also thank participants in the Stanford Law Review Symposium on Punishment and Its Purposes, especially my copanelists Paul Butler and Pamela Karlan, for their insights. 1271

What Is HeinOnline?

HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.



Short-term subscription options include 24 hours, 48 hours, or 1 week to HeinOnline.

Purchase Access

Contact us for annual subscription options:

Contact Us

Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?

Log In

profiles profiles most