One amazing fact stands out from all the contemporary information about
American corrections: While serious crime in the United States consistently
declined throughout much of the 1990s, and while such declines continued
into the rst two decades of the 21st century, the number of people under
correctional supervision in this country—not just the number of people who
have been convicted and sent to prison—started to skyrocket during the
1980s, and only began to drop after 2010. Crime rates are approximately 20
percent lower today than they were in 1980. In fact, they are near their
lowest level in 35 years. But the number of people under correctional
supervision increased almost 300% between 1980 and 2010— when it nally
started to decline. During that period, the federal prison population went
from 11 incarcerated persons for every 100,000 U.S. residents to 68. Annual
spending on the federal prison system rose 600 percent, from $970 million to
more than $6.7 billion in ination-adjusted dollars. States, like the federal
government, recorded sharp increases in incarceration and corrections costs
over the three decades from 1980 to 2010. Numbers like these show that the
era of mass incarceration, created a widescale reliance on the use of
imprisonment to address the nation’s problems. By the turn of the 21st
century, the provision of correctional services of all kinds had become a
major strain on government budgets at all levels. Page 4 Today, progress is
being made in bringing imprisonment rates down. By 2020, the
imprisonment rate at the federal level had fallen to 43 persons out of every
100,000 U.S. residents—and it continues to decline. In just one year
(between 2019 and 2020), federal prisons showed a 40% decrease in new
admissions. State prisons showed similar declines, with the largest
percentage declines in admissions in California, which had 66% fewer
admissions in 2020 than in 2019, and in New York where admissions to
prison decreased by 60%. Although some of the decline in prison admissions
was the result of new government policies, the bulk of it was due to the fact
that courts across the country altered their operations during the COVID
epidemic, leading to delays in trials and the sentencing of persons. Alongside
fewer admissions, there have also been increases in the number of persons
released from prison, but when viewed historically American prison
populations continue to be extraordinarily high ( Exhibit 1-1). Critics of
today’s continued high rates of imprisonment sometimes refer to our country
as a carceral state. The term carceral state implies that government power is
being used to incapacitate, incarcerate, detain, or otherwise limit the
physical freedom of vast numbers of people, extending far beyond that
necessary to ensure a safe and just society. Of course, the words “safe” and
“just” are critical and reveal that social justice concerns need to be balanced
with public safety in determining appropriate levels of incapacitation not only
in the United States but in any society. Those who support the widespread
use of incarceration argue that public safety can be assured only through
incapacitation of those who are dangerous. But “dangerousness” can be a
slippery concept when applied to social activity that may not physically harm
others directly—as when those who use (or even trac in) illicit drugs are
arrested and prosecuted. Nora Krinitsky, Director of the Carceral State
Project at the University of Michigan, says, “The term carceral state often
calls to mind institutions of connement like jails, detention centers, prisons,
but … it also comprises a wide range of policies, practices, and institutions
that scrutinize individuals and communities both before and after their
contact with the criminal justice system.” We might also add that, in a true
carceral state, the justice system employs millions of men and women who
directly depend upon high rates of imprisonment and detention to earn a
living. CO1-1 THE CARCERAL STATE: WHERE DO WE GO NOW? One amazing
fact stands out from all the contemporary information about American
corrections: While serious crime in the United States consistently declined
throughout much of the 1990s, and while such declines continued into the
rst two decades of the 21st century, the number of people under correctional
supervision in this country—not just the number of people who have been
convicted and sent to prison—started to skyrocket during the 1980s, and
only began to drop after 2010. Crime rates are approximately 20 percent
lower today than they were in 1980. In fact, they are near their lowest level
in 35 years. But the number of people under correctional supervision
increased almost 300% between 1980 and 2010— when it nally started to
decline. During that period, the federal prison population went from 11
incarcerated persons for every 100,000 U.S. residents to 68. Annual
spending on the federal prison system rose 600 percent, from $970 million to
more than $6.7 billion in ination-adjusted dollars. States, like the federal
government, recorded sharp increases in incarceration and corrections costs
over the three 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now?
https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 1/15 decades from 1980 to 2010.
Numbers like these show that the era of mass incarceration, created a
widescale reliance on the use of imprisonment to address the nation’s
problems. By the turn of the 21st century, the provision of correctional
services of all kinds had become a major strain on government budgets at all
levels. Page 4 Today, progress is being made in bringing imprisonment rates
down. By 2020, the imprisonment rate at the federal level had fallen to 43
persons out of every 100,000 U.S. residents—and it continues to decline. In
just one year (between 2019 and 2020), federal prisons showed a 40%
decrease in new admissions. State prisons showed similar declines, with the
largest percentage declines in admissions in California, which had 66% fewer
admissions in 2020 than in 2019, and in New York where admissions to
prison decreased by 60%. Although some of the decline in prison admissions
was the result of new government policies, the bulk of it was due to the fact
that courts across the country altered their operations during the COVID
epidemic, leading to delays in trials and the sentencing of persons. Alongside
fewer admissions, there have also been increases in the number of persons
released from prison, but when viewed historically American prison
populations continue to be extraordinarily high ( Exhibit 1-1). Critics of
today’s continued high rates of imprisonment sometimes refer to our country
as a carceral state. The term carceral state implies that government power is
being used to incapacitate, incarcerate, detain, or otherwise limit the
physical freedom of vast numbers of people, extending far beyond that
necessary to ensure a safe and just society. Of course, the words “safe” and
“just” are critical and reveal that social justice concerns need to be balanced
with public safety in determining appropriate levels of incapacitation not only
in the United States but in any society. Those who support the widespread
use of incarceration argue that public safety can be assured only through
incapacitation of those who are dangerous. But “dangerousness” can be a
slippery concept when applied to social activity that may 3 1/26/25, 4:40 PM
The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now? https://prod.reader-
ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 2/15 not physically harm others
directly—as when those who use (or even trac in) illicit drugs are arrested
and prosecuted. Nora Krinitsky, Director of the Carceral State Project at the
University of Michigan, says, “The term carceral state often calls to mind
institutions of connement like jails, detention centers, prisons, but … it also
comprises a wide range of policies, practices, and institutions that scrutinize
individuals and communities both before and after their contact with the
criminal justice system.” We might also add that, in a true carceral state, the
justice system employs millions of men and women who directly depend
upon high rates of imprisonment and detention to earn a living. 4 1/26/25,
4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now? https://prod.reader-
ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 3/15 EXHIBIT 1–1 The Growth of
Imprisonment in the United States Page 5 Source: Bureau of Justice Statistics
1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now?
https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 4/15 The question that needs to be
answered is, “Why?” Why did the American correctional population increase
so dramatically in recent decades even in the face of declining crime rates?
And why is the United States still in the midst of an era of mass
incarceration? The answer to these questions, like the answers to most
societal enigmas, is far from simple, and it has a number of dimensions. We
identify four such dimensions in the material that follows. First, it is
important to recognize that get-tough-on-crime laws, such as the
threestrikes (and two-strikes) laws that were enacted in many states during
the mid1990s, fueled rapid increases in prison populations. The conservative
attitudes that gave birth to those laws are still largely with us, and much of
the increase in state prison populations has come from imprisoning more
people for violent crimes for longer periods of time. At the federal level, the
Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 encouraged longer
prison sentences for more crimes and led to the adoption of harsher
sentencing regimes throughout the nation. A second reason that correctional
populations increased rapidly during the 1990s and the decade that followed
can be found in the Twentieth Century’s War on Drugs. The War on Drugs led
to the arrest and conviction of many people, resulting in larger correctional
populations in nearly every jurisdiction (especially within the federal
correctional system). The congressional Colson Task Force on Federal
Corrections, which issued its report ten years ago, found that “The biggest
driver of growth” in the federal prison population was “federally sentenced
drug oenders, almost all of whom were convicted of drug tracking” (see
Exhibit 1–2 for drug arrests, and compare it with Exhibit 1–1 to see the
impact of drug arrests on prison populations). Many drug arrestees—
especially trackers—are sentenced to lengthy prison terms, further
increasing the number of people in prison, and many such people have
multiple convictions, including use (or possession) of a rearm during a drug
transaction. So although today’s drive to legalize marijuana and other
previously illicit substances may lead to fewer imprisoned persons in the
future, the last century’s War on Drugs goes a long way 5 6 1/26/25, 4:40 PM
The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now? https://prod.reader-
ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 5/15 toward explaining the historical
growth in correctional populations even while the rate of “serious crime” in
the United States was declining. 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where
Do We Go Now?
https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 6/15 EXHIBIT 1–2 U.S. Drug Arrests,
1980–2020. Page 6 Source: Bureau of Justice Statistics. 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The
Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now? https://prod.reader-
ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 7/15 Third, parole authorities became
increasingly reluctant to release people on parole for fear of the civil liability
that they could face should those people commit new crimes. This
contributed to a further expansion of prison populations. Fourth, as some
observers have noted, the corrections boom created its own growth dynamic.
As ever increasing numbers of people were placed on probation, the
likelihood of probation violations increased. Prison sentences for more and
more violators resulted in larger prison populations. When people who have
been in prison are released, they swell the numbers of those on parole,
leading to a larger number of parole violations, which in turn can still fuel
further prison growth. Statistics show that the number of persons convicted
of violating the criminal law and then sent to prison for at least the second
time has increased steadily, accounting for approximately 35 percent of the
total number of admissions. One analysis of the dramatic increase in
imprisonment, found that it “was not driven by a centralized national-level
strategy for dealing with crime and was not based on a coherent body of
empirical knowledge demonstrating that prisons improved public safety.”
Instead, said the report, “it was the product of layers of legislative decisions,
primarily enacted at the state level, to charge and imprison more oenders,
increase sentences, limit prison releases, and expand” prison capacity. These
decisions led to a new era in which prisons became primary weapons in what
was then seen as the nation’s war on drugs and on crime. 7 8 1/26/25, 4:40
PM The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now? https://prod.reader-
ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 8/15 U.S. correctional populations
have grown dramatically over the past 40 years, as this image of
incarcerated persons living in a modified gymnasium at the Mule Creek State
Prison in Ione, California, illustrates. What factors led to a substantial
increase in the use of imprisonment in this country beginning in the 1980s?
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do
We Go Now?
https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 9/15 Turning the Corner in U.S. Prison
Populations While get-tough-on-crime attitudes continue to persist among
signicant segments of American society today, they have largely been
trumped by economic realities. State budgets have been hard pressed to
continue funding prison expansion, and the number of people behind bars
began to show a slow decline beginning around 2010. Alternatives to
imprisonment, most of which will be discussed in coming chapters, are many
and include probation, nes, and community service—to which people who
have been convicted are being sentenced in increasing numbers. In order to
reduce correctional expenditures even further, some states are using forms
of early release from prison, shortening time served, reducing the period of
probation or parole supervision, and shifting the responsibility of supervising
people who have been convicted to county-level governments (and away
from state responsibility). We will examine these innovations at various
places throughout this text. As states grappled with the economic realities of
reduced revenues and constrained budgets beginning in the early 2000s, it
became increasingly important to get the most “bang for the buck,” so to
speak, out of correctional programs. The realization that imprisonment had
become too expensive, combined with a number of other factors, led to a
decline in prison populations. Other reasons for the decline include: 1.
Criminal justice reform policies—Many states have enacted policies aimed at
reducing the use of imprisonment and promoting alternatives to
incarceration, such as drug courts and community supervision programs. 2. A
decrease in crime rates—In recent years, crime rates in the United States
have generally been declining (contrary to what the popular media might
depict), which has contributed to a reduction in the number of people being
sentenced to prison. 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do We Go
Now? https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 10/15 Page 7 In her incoming
presidential address to the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences, Melissa
Hickman Barlow outlined a plan for the implementation of sustainable
justice. Barlow dened sustainable justice as “criminal laws and criminal
justice institutions, policies, and practices that achieve justice in the present
without compromising the ability of future generations to have the benets of
a just society.” Barlow’s call for aordable justice, based on principles and
operating practices that can be carried into the future without bankrupting
generations yet to come, represents an important turning point in our
nation’s approach to corrections and other justice institutions. These and
other factors have contributed to a reduction in the number of people being
incarcerated in the United States and a growing recognition of the need to
adopt evidence-based policies. As we will see in the next chapter, the
evidencebased movement in corrections seeks to evaluate programs and
services to see which are the most eective relative to their costs. Evidence-
based practices play an important role in correctional administration today—
and should contribute much to the call for sustainable justice and continue to
contribute to a decline in the use of imprisonment. 3. Reforms to sentencing
laws—Some states have passed laws to reduce mandatory minimum
sentences and provide greater discretion to judges in imposing sentences,
which has, in turn, led to fewer people being sentenced to long prison terms.
4. Decarceration initiatives—In response to overcrowding, budget
constraints, and public pressure, some states have implemented initiatives
to safely reduce their prison populations, such as early release programs and
parole reforms. 5. Changes in drug enforcement policies—Some states have
adopted reforms to their drug enforcement policies, such as reducing
sentences for drug oenses and expanding access to treatment, all of which
have reduced the number of people incarcerated for drug-related crimes. 9
1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now?
https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 11/15 Correctional Employment As
correctional populations peaked, increasing budgets led to a dramatically
expanding correctional workforce and enhanced employment opportunities
within the eld. Much of that momentum continues into the present day. In
2023, for example, the North Carolina Department of Public Safety oered a
$7,000 hiring bonus for new correctional ocers (COs), and the Tennessee
Department of Corrections provided a $5,000 bonus to newly hired ocers. At
the same time, the Nebraska Department of Correctional Services provided a
bonus of $15,000 for experienced COs (i.e., for those at the rank of corporal
or higher) who were willing to work at the Nebraska State Penitentiary and
other select facilities. According to historical reports, persons employed in
the corrections eld totaled approximately 27,000 in 1950. By 1975, the
number had risen to about 75,000. Estimates published by the Bureau of
Labor Statistics (BLS) in 2021 show that over 400,000 government
employees throughout the United States worked in corrections, with a total
monthly payroll of around $3 billion. BLS also found that the average hourly
and annual wage for COs and jailers was $25.69 and $53,420, respectively.
Of course, supervisors and those at higher rank earned more than the
average. Similarly, those who begin work with college degrees are paid
more. Exhibit 1–3 shows some of the employment possibilities in corrections.
Page 8 10 11 12 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now?
https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 12/15 EXHIBIT 1–3 Careers in
Corrections 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now?
https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 13/15 Prisons mean jobs and can
contribute greatly to the health of local economies. Some economically
disadvantaged towns—from Tupper Lake, in the Adirondack Mountains of
upstate New York, to Edgeeld, South Carolina—recently cashed in on the
corrections industry, having successfully competed to become sites for new
prisons. Although prison populations have recently fallen, a number of states
are building new prisons to replace failing prison infrastructure with safer,
more secure facilities that accommodate the rehabilitation of incarcerated
people. In 2021, for example, the state of Alabama announced the planned
construction of two new correctional facilities to be built on state-owned
land. The two new facilities, each designed to hold 4,000 persons in
connement will cost approximately $700 million to build and will contribute
about $30 million a year to the local economy. Academic teacher Activity
therapy administrator Business manager Case manager Chaplain Chemical
dependency manager Children’s services counselor Classication ocer Clinical
social worker Correctional ocer Dietary ocer Drug court coordinator Field
administrator Fugitive apprehension ocer Human services counselor Job
placement ocer Mental health clinician Parole caseworker Parole ocer
Presentence investigator Probation ocer Program ocer Program specialist
Programmer/analyst Psychologist Recreation coordinator Social worker
Statistician Substance abuse counselor Unit leader Victim advocate
Vocational instructor Warden/superintendent Youth services coordinator
Youth supervisor 13 14 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do We
Go Now? https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-
uuid-3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 14/15 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The
Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now? https://prod.reader-
ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 15/15
CO1-1 THE CARCERAL STATE: WHERE DO WE GO NOW? One amazing fact
stands out from all the contemporary information about American
corrections: While serious crime in the United States consistently declined
throughout much of the 1990s, and while such declines continued into the
rst two decades of the 21st century, the number of people under correctional
supervision in this country—not just the number of people who have been
convicted and sent to prison—started to skyrocket during the 1980s, and
only began to drop after 2010. Crime rates are approximately 20 percent
lower today than they were in 1980. In fact, they are near their lowest level
in 35 years. But the number of people under correctional supervision
increased almost 300% between 1980 and 2010— when it nally started to
decline. During that period, the federal prison population went from 11
incarcerated persons for every 100,000 U.S. residents to 68. Annual
spending on the federal prison system rose 600 percent, from $970 million to
more than $6.7 billion in ination-adjusted dollars. States, like the federal
government, recorded sharp increases in incarceration and corrections costs
over the three 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now?
https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 1/15 decades from 1980 to 2010.
Numbers like these show that the era of mass incarceration, created a
widescale reliance on the use of imprisonment to address the nation’s
problems. By the turn of the 21st century, the provision of correctional
services of all kinds had become a major strain on government budgets at all
levels. Page 4 Today, progress is being made in bringing imprisonment rates
down. By 2020, the imprisonment rate at the federal level had fallen to 43
persons out of every 100,000 U.S. residents—and it continues to decline. In
just one year (between 2019 and 2020), federal prisons showed a 40%
decrease in new admissions. State prisons showed similar declines, with the
largest percentage declines in admissions in California, which had 66% fewer
admissions in 2020 than in 2019, and in New York where admissions to
prison decreased by 60%. Although some of the decline in prison admissions
was the result of new government policies, the bulk of it was due to the fact
that courts across the country altered their operations during the COVID
epidemic, leading to delays in trials and the sentencing of persons. Alongside
fewer admissions, there have also been increases in the number of persons
released from prison, but when viewed historically American prison
populations continue to be extraordinarily high ( Exhibit 1-1). Critics of
today’s continued high rates of imprisonment sometimes refer to our country
as a carceral state. The term carceral state implies that government power is
being used to incapacitate, incarcerate, detain, or otherwise limit the
physical freedom of vast numbers of people, extending far beyond that
necessary to ensure a safe and just society. Of course, the words “safe” and
“just” are critical and reveal that social justice concerns need to be balanced
with public safety in determining appropriate levels of incapacitation not only
in the United States but in any society. Those who support the widespread
use of incarceration argue that public safety can be assured only through
incapacitation of those who are dangerous. But “dangerousness” can be a
slippery concept when applied to social activity that may 3 1/26/25, 4:40 PM
The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now? https://prod.reader-
ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 2/15 not physically harm others
directly—as when those who use (or even trac in) illicit drugs are arrested
and prosecuted. Nora Krinitsky, Director of the Carceral State Project at the
University of Michigan, says, “The term carceral state often calls to mind
institutions of connement like jails, detention centers, prisons, but … it also
comprises a wide range of policies, practices, and institutions that scrutinize
individuals and communities both before and after their contact with the
criminal justice system.” We might also add that, in a true carceral state, the
justice system employs millions of men and women who directly depend
upon high rates of imprisonment and detention to earn a living. 4 1/26/25,
4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now? https://prod.reader-
ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 3/15 EXHIBIT 1–1 The Growth of
Imprisonment in the United States Page 5 Source: Bureau of Justice Statistics
1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now?
https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 4/15 The question that needs to be
answered is, “Why?” Why did the American correctional population increase
so dramatically in recent decades even in the face of declining crime rates?
And why is the United States still in the midst of an era of mass
incarceration? The answer to these questions, like the answers to most
societal enigmas, is far from simple, and it has a number of dimensions. We
identify four such dimensions in the material that follows. First, it is
important to recognize that get-tough-on-crime laws, such as the
threestrikes (and two-strikes) laws that were enacted in many states during
the mid1990s, fueled rapid increases in prison populations. The conservative
attitudes that gave birth to those laws are still largely with us, and much of
the increase in state prison populations has come from imprisoning more
people for violent crimes for longer periods of time. At the federal level, the
Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 encouraged longer
prison sentences for more crimes and led to the adoption of harsher
sentencing regimes throughout the nation. A second reason that correctional
populations increased rapidly during the 1990s and the decade that followed
can be found in the Twentieth Century’s War on Drugs. The War on Drugs led
to the arrest and conviction of many people, resulting in larger correctional
populations in nearly every jurisdiction (especially within the federal
correctional system). The congressional Colson Task Force on Federal
Corrections, which issued its report ten years ago, found that “The biggest
driver of growth” in the federal prison population was “federally sentenced
drug oenders, almost all of whom were convicted of drug tracking” (see
Exhibit 1–2 for drug arrests, and compare it with Exhibit 1–1 to see the
impact of drug arrests on prison populations). Many drug arrestees—
especially trackers—are sentenced to lengthy prison terms, further
increasing the number of people in prison, and many such people have
multiple convictions, including use (or possession) of a rearm during a drug
transaction. So although today’s drive to legalize marijuana and other
previously illicit substances may lead to fewer imprisoned persons in the
future, the last century’s War on Drugs goes a long way 5 6 1/26/25, 4:40 PM
The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now? https://prod.reader-
ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 5/15 toward explaining the historical
growth in correctional populations even while the rate of “serious crime” in
the United States was declining. 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where
Do We Go Now?
https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 6/15 EXHIBIT 1–2 U.S. Drug Arrests,
1980–2020. Page 6 Source: Bureau of Justice Statistics. 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The
Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now? https://prod.reader-
ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 7/15 Third, parole authorities became
increasingly reluctant to release people on parole for fear of the civil liability
that they could face should those people commit new crimes. This
contributed to a further expansion of prison populations. Fourth, as some
observers have noted, the corrections boom created its own growth dynamic.
As ever increasing numbers of people were placed on probation, the
likelihood of probation violations increased. Prison sentences for more and
more violators resulted in larger prison populations. When people who have
been in prison are released, they swell the numbers of those on parole,
leading to a larger number of parole violations, which in turn can still fuel
further prison growth. Statistics show that the number of persons convicted
of violating the criminal law and then sent to prison for at least the second
time has increased steadily, accounting for approximately 35 percent of the
total number of admissions. One analysis of the dramatic increase in
imprisonment, found that it “was not driven by a centralized national-level
strategy for dealing with crime and was not based on a coherent body of
empirical knowledge demonstrating that prisons improved public safety.”
Instead, said the report, “it was the product of layers of legislative decisions,
primarily enacted at the state level, to charge and imprison more oenders,
increase sentences, limit prison releases, and expand” prison capacity. These
decisions led to a new era in which prisons became primary weapons in what
was then seen as the nation’s war on drugs and on crime. 7 8 1/26/25, 4:40
PM The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now? https://prod.reader-
ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 8/15 U.S. correctional populations
have grown dramatically over the past 40 years, as this image of
incarcerated persons living in a modified gymnasium at the Mule Creek State
Prison in Ione, California, illustrates. What factors led to a substantial
increase in the use of imprisonment in this country beginning in the 1980s?
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do
We Go Now?
https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 9/15 Turning the Corner in U.S. Prison
Populations While get-tough-on-crime attitudes continue to persist among
signicant segments of American society today, they have largely been
trumped by economic realities. State budgets have been hard pressed to
continue funding prison expansion, and the number of people behind bars
began to show a slow decline beginning around 2010. Alternatives to
imprisonment, most of which will be discussed in coming chapters, are many
and include probation, nes, and community service—to which people who
have been convicted are being sentenced in increasing numbers. In order to
reduce correctional expenditures even further, some states are using forms
of early release from prison, shortening time served, reducing the period of
probation or parole supervision, and shifting the responsibility of supervising
people who have been convicted to county-level governments (and away
from state responsibility). We will examine these innovations at various
places throughout this text. As states grappled with the economic realities of
reduced revenues and constrained budgets beginning in the early 2000s, it
became increasingly important to get the most “bang for the buck,” so to
speak, out of correctional programs. The realization that imprisonment had
become too expensive, combined with a number of other factors, led to a
decline in prison populations. Other reasons for the decline include: 1.
Criminal justice reform policies—Many states have enacted policies aimed at
reducing the use of imprisonment and promoting alternatives to
incarceration, such as drug courts and community supervision programs. 2. A
decrease in crime rates—In recent years, crime rates in the United States
have generally been declining (contrary to what the popular media might
depict), which has contributed to a reduction in the number of people being
sentenced to prison. 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do We Go
Now? https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 10/15 Page 7 In her incoming
presidential address to the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences, Melissa
Hickman Barlow outlined a plan for the implementation of sustainable
justice. Barlow dened sustainable justice as “criminal laws and criminal
justice institutions, policies, and practices that achieve justice in the present
without compromising the ability of future generations to have the benets of
a just society.” Barlow’s call for aordable justice, based on principles and
operating practices that can be carried into the future without bankrupting
generations yet to come, represents an important turning point in our
nation’s approach to corrections and other justice institutions. These and
other factors have contributed to a reduction in the number of people being
incarcerated in the United States and a growing recognition of the need to
adopt evidence-based policies. As we will see in the next chapter, the
evidencebased movement in corrections seeks to evaluate programs and
services to see which are the most eective relative to their costs. Evidence-
based practices play an important role in correctional administration today—
and should contribute much to the call for sustainable justice and continue to
contribute to a decline in the use of imprisonment. 3. Reforms to sentencing
laws—Some states have passed laws to reduce mandatory minimum
sentences and provide greater discretion to judges in imposing sentences,
which has, in turn, led to fewer people being sentenced to long prison terms.
4. Decarceration initiatives—In response to overcrowding, budget
constraints, and public pressure, some states have implemented initiatives
to safely reduce their prison populations, such as early release programs and
parole reforms. 5. Changes in drug enforcement policies—Some states have
adopted reforms to their drug enforcement policies, such as reducing
sentences for drug oenses and expanding access to treatment, all of which
have reduced the number of people incarcerated for drug-related crimes. 9
1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now?
https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 11/15 Correctional Employment As
correctional populations peaked, increasing budgets led to a dramatically
expanding correctional workforce and enhanced employment opportunities
within the eld. Much of that momentum continues into the present day. In
2023, for example, the North Carolina Department of Public Safety oered a
$7,000 hiring bonus for new correctional ocers (COs), and the Tennessee
Department of Corrections provided a $5,000 bonus to newly hired ocers. At
the same time, the Nebraska Department of Correctional Services provided a
bonus of $15,000 for experienced COs (i.e., for those at the rank of corporal
or higher) who were willing to work at the Nebraska State Penitentiary and
other select facilities. According to historical reports, persons employed in
the corrections eld totaled approximately 27,000 in 1950. By 1975, the
number had risen to about 75,000. Estimates published by the Bureau of
Labor Statistics (BLS) in 2021 show that over 400,000 government
employees throughout the United States worked in corrections, with a total
monthly payroll of around $3 billion. BLS also found that the average hourly
and annual wage for COs and jailers was $25.69 and $53,420, respectively.
Of course, supervisors and those at higher rank earned more than the
average. Similarly, those who begin work with college degrees are paid
more. Exhibit 1–3 shows some of the employment possibilities in corrections.
Page 8 10 11 12 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now?
https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 12/15 EXHIBIT 1–3 Careers in
Corrections 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now?
https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 13/15 Prisons mean jobs and can
contribute greatly to the health of local economies. Some economically
disadvantaged towns—from Tupper Lake, in the Adirondack Mountains of
upstate New York, to Edgeeld, South Carolina—recently cashed in on the
corrections industry, having successfully competed to become sites for new
prisons. Although prison populations have recently fallen, a number of states
are building new prisons to replace failing prison infrastructure with safer,
more secure facilities that accommodate the rehabilitation of incarcerated
people. In 2021, for example, the state of Alabama announced the planned
construction of two new correctional facilities to be built on state-owned
land. The two new facilities, each designed to hold 4,000 persons in
connement will cost approximately $700 million to build and will contribute
about $30 million a year to the local economy. Academic teacher Activity
therapy administrator Business manager Case manager Chaplain Chemical
dependency manager Children’s services counselor Classication ocer Clinical
social worker Correctional ocer Dietary ocer Drug court coordinator Field
administrator Fugitive apprehension ocer Human services counselor Job
placement ocer Mental health clinician Parole caseworker Parole ocer
Presentence investigator Probation ocer Program ocer Program specialist
Programmer/analyst Psychologist Recreation coordinator Social worker
Statistician Substance abuse counselor Unit leader Victim advocate
Vocational instructor Warden/superintendent Youth services coordinator
Youth supervisor 13 14 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do We
Go Now? https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-
uuid-3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 14/15 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The
Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now? https://prod.reader-
ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 15/15
CO1-1 THE CARCERAL STATE: WHERE DO WE GO NOW? One amazing fact
stands out from all the contemporary information about American
corrections: While serious crime in the United States consistently declined
throughout much of the 1990s, and while such declines continued into the
rst two decades of the 21st century, the number of people under correctional
supervision in this country—not just the number of people who have been
convicted and sent to prison—started to skyrocket during the 1980s, and
only began to drop after 2010. Crime rates are approximately 20 percent
lower today than they were in 1980. In fact, they are near their lowest level
in 35 years. But the number of people under correctional supervision
increased almost 300% between 1980 and 2010— when it nally started to
decline. During that period, the federal prison population went from 11
incarcerated persons for every 100,000 U.S. residents to 68. Annual
spending on the federal prison system rose 600 percent, from $970 million to
more than $6.7 billion in ination-adjusted dollars. States, like the federal
government, recorded sharp increases in incarceration and corrections costs
over the three 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now?
https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 1/15 decades from 1980 to 2010.
Numbers like these show that the era of mass incarceration, created a
widescale reliance on the use of imprisonment to address the nation’s
problems. By the turn of the 21st century, the provision of correctional
services of all kinds had become a major strain on government budgets at all
levels. Page 4 Today, progress is being made in bringing imprisonment rates
down. By 2020, the imprisonment rate at the federal level had fallen to 43
persons out of every 100,000 U.S. residents—and it continues to decline. In
just one year (between 2019 and 2020), federal prisons showed a 40%
decrease in new admissions. State prisons showed similar declines, with the
largest percentage declines in admissions in California, which had 66% fewer
admissions in 2020 than in 2019, and in New York where admissions to
prison decreased by 60%. Although some of the decline in prison admissions
was the result of new government policies, the bulk of it was due to the fact
that courts across the country altered their operations during the COVID
epidemic, leading to delays in trials and the sentencing of persons. Alongside
fewer admissions, there have also been increases in the number of persons
released from prison, but when viewed historically American prison
populations continue to be extraordinarily high ( Exhibit 1-1). Critics of
today’s continued high rates of imprisonment sometimes refer to our country
as a carceral state. The term carceral state implies that government power is
being used to incapacitate, incarcerate, detain, or otherwise limit the
physical freedom of vast numbers of people, extending far beyond that
necessary to ensure a safe and just society. Of course, the words “safe” and
“just” are critical and reveal that social justice concerns need to be balanced
with public safety in determining appropriate levels of incapacitation not only
in the United States but in any society. Those who support the widespread
use of incarceration argue that public safety can be assured only through
incapacitation of those who are dangerous. But “dangerousness” can be a
slippery concept when applied to social activity that may 3 1/26/25, 4:40 PM
The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now? https://prod.reader-
ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 2/15 not physically harm others
directly—as when those who use (or even trac in) illicit drugs are arrested
and prosecuted. Nora Krinitsky, Director of the Carceral State Project at the
University of Michigan, says, “The term carceral state often calls to mind
institutions of connement like jails, detention centers, prisons, but … it also
comprises a wide range of policies, practices, and institutions that scrutinize
individuals and communities both before and after their contact with the
criminal justice system.” We might also add that, in a true carceral state, the
justice system employs millions of men and women who directly depend
upon high rates of imprisonment and detention to earn a living. 4 1/26/25,
4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now? https://prod.reader-
ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 3/15 EXHIBIT 1–1 The Growth of
Imprisonment in the United States Page 5 Source: Bureau of Justice Statistics
1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now?
https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 4/15 The question that needs to be
answered is, “Why?” Why did the American correctional population increase
so dramatically in recent decades even in the face of declining crime rates?
And why is the United States still in the midst of an era of mass
incarceration? The answer to these questions, like the answers to most
societal enigmas, is far from simple, and it has a number of dimensions. We
identify four such dimensions in the material that follows. First, it is
important to recognize that get-tough-on-crime laws, such as the
threestrikes (and two-strikes) laws that were enacted in many states during
the mid1990s, fueled rapid increases in prison populations. The conservative
attitudes that gave birth to those laws are still largely with us, and much of
the increase in state prison populations has come from imprisoning more
people for violent crimes for longer periods of time. At the federal level, the
Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 encouraged longer
prison sentences for more crimes and led to the adoption of harsher
sentencing regimes throughout the nation. A second reason that correctional
populations increased rapidly during the 1990s and the decade that followed
can be found in the Twentieth Century’s War on Drugs. The War on Drugs led
to the arrest and conviction of many people, resulting in larger correctional
populations in nearly every jurisdiction (especially within the federal
correctional system). The congressional Colson Task Force on Federal
Corrections, which issued its report ten years ago, found that “The biggest
driver of growth” in the federal prison population was “federally sentenced
drug oenders, almost all of whom were convicted of drug tracking” (see
Exhibit 1–2 for drug arrests, and compare it with Exhibit 1–1 to see the
impact of drug arrests on prison populations). Many drug arrestees—
especially trackers—are sentenced to lengthy prison terms, further
increasing the number of people in prison, and many such people have
multiple convictions, including use (or possession) of a rearm during a drug
transaction. So although today’s drive to legalize marijuana and other
previously illicit substances may lead to fewer imprisoned persons in the
future, the last century’s War on Drugs goes a long way 5 6 1/26/25, 4:40 PM
The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now? https://prod.reader-
ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 5/15 toward explaining the historical
growth in correctional populations even while the rate of “serious crime” in
the United States was declining. 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where
Do We Go Now?
https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 6/15 EXHIBIT 1–2 U.S. Drug Arrests,
1980–2020. Page 6 Source: Bureau of Justice Statistics. 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The
Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now? https://prod.reader-
ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 7/15 Third, parole authorities became
increasingly reluctant to release people on parole for fear of the civil liability
that they could face should those people commit new crimes. This
contributed to a further expansion of prison populations. Fourth, as some
observers have noted, the corrections boom created its own growth dynamic.
As ever increasing numbers of people were placed on probation, the
likelihood of probation violations increased. Prison sentences for more and
more violators resulted in larger prison populations. When people who have
been in prison are released, they swell the numbers of those on parole,
leading to a larger number of parole violations, which in turn can still fuel
further prison growth. Statistics show that the number of persons convicted
of violating the criminal law and then sent to prison for at least the second
time has increased steadily, accounting for approximately 35 percent of the
total number of admissions. One analysis of the dramatic increase in
imprisonment, found that it “was not driven by a centralized national-level
strategy for dealing with crime and was not based on a coherent body of
empirical knowledge demonstrating that prisons improved public safety.”
Instead, said the report, “it was the product of layers of legislative decisions,
primarily enacted at the state level, to charge and imprison more oenders,
increase sentences, limit prison releases, and expand” prison capacity. These
decisions led to a new era in which prisons became primary weapons in what
was then seen as the nation’s war on drugs and on crime. 7 8 1/26/25, 4:40
PM The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now? https://prod.reader-
ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 8/15 U.S. correctional populations
have grown dramatically over the past 40 years, as this image of
incarcerated persons living in a modified gymnasium at the Mule Creek State
Prison in Ione, California, illustrates. What factors led to a substantial
increase in the use of imprisonment in this country beginning in the 1980s?
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do
We Go Now?
https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 9/15 Turning the Corner in U.S. Prison
Populations While get-tough-on-crime attitudes continue to persist among
signicant segments of American society today, they have largely been
trumped by economic realities. State budgets have been hard pressed to
continue funding prison expansion, and the number of people behind bars
began to show a slow decline beginning around 2010. Alternatives to
imprisonment, most of which will be discussed in coming chapters, are many
and include probation, nes, and community service—to which people who
have been convicted are being sentenced in increasing numbers. In order to
reduce correctional expenditures even further, some states are using forms
of early release from prison, shortening time served, reducing the period of
probation or parole supervision, and shifting the responsibility of supervising
people who have been convicted to county-level governments (and away
from state responsibility). We will examine these innovations at various
places throughout this text. As states grappled with the economic realities of
reduced revenues and constrained budgets beginning in the early 2000s, it
became increasingly important to get the most “bang for the buck,” so to
speak, out of correctional programs. The realization that imprisonment had
become too expensive, combined with a number of other factors, led to a
decline in prison populations. Other reasons for the decline include: 1.
Criminal justice reform policies—Many states have enacted policies aimed at
reducing the use of imprisonment and promoting alternatives to
incarceration, such as drug courts and community supervision programs. 2. A
decrease in crime rates—In recent years, crime rates in the United States
have generally been declining (contrary to what the popular media might
depict), which has contributed to a reduction in the number of people being
sentenced to prison. 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do We Go
Now? https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 10/15 Page 7 In her incoming
presidential address to the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences, Melissa
Hickman Barlow outlined a plan for the implementation of sustainable
justice. Barlow dened sustainable justice as “criminal laws and criminal
justice institutions, policies, and practices that achieve justice in the present
without compromising the ability of future generations to have the benets of
a just society.” Barlow’s call for aordable justice, based on principles and
operating practices that can be carried into the future without bankrupting
generations yet to come, represents an important turning point in our
nation’s approach to corrections and other justice institutions. These and
other factors have contributed to a reduction in the number of people being
incarcerated in the United States and a growing recognition of the need to
adopt evidence-based policies. As we will see in the next chapter, the
evidencebased movement in corrections seeks to evaluate programs and
services to see which are the most eective relative to their costs. Evidence-
based practices play an important role in correctional administration today—
and should contribute much to the call for sustainable justice and continue to
contribute to a decline in the use of imprisonment. 3. Reforms to sentencing
laws—Some states have passed laws to reduce mandatory minimum
sentences and provide greater discretion to judges in imposing sentences,
which has, in turn, led to fewer people being sentenced to long prison terms.
4. Decarceration initiatives—In response to overcrowding, budget
constraints, and public pressure, some states have implemented initiatives
to safely reduce their prison populations, such as early release programs and
parole reforms. 5. Changes in drug enforcement policies—Some states have
adopted reforms to their drug enforcement policies, such as reducing
sentences for drug oenses and expanding access to treatment, all of which
have reduced the number of people incarcerated for drug-related crimes. 9
1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now?
https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
CO1-1 THE CARCERAL STATE: WHERE DO WE GO NOW? One amazing fact
stands out from all the contemporary information about American
corrections: While serious crime in the United States consistently declined
throughout much of the 1990s, and while such declines continued into the
rst two decades of the 21st century, the number of people under correctional
supervision in this country—not just the number of people who have been
convicted and sent to prison—started to skyrocket during the 1980s, and
only began to drop after 2010. Crime rates are approximately 20 percent
lower today than they were in 1980. In fact, they are near their lowest level
in 35 years. But the number of people under correctional supervision
increased almost 300% between 1980 and 2010— when it nally started to
decline. During that period, the federal prison population went from 11
incarcerated persons for every 100,000 U.S. residents to 68. Annual
spending on the federal prison system rose 600 percent, from $970 million to
more than $6.7 billion in ination-adjusted dollars. States, like the federal
government, recorded sharp increases in incarceration and corrections costs
over the three 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now?
https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 1/15 decades from 1980 to 2010.
Numbers like these show that the era of mass incarceration, created a
widescale reliance on the use of imprisonment to address the nation’s
problems. By the turn of the 21st century, the provision of correctional
services of all kinds had become a major strain on government budgets at all
levels. Page 4 Today, progress is being made in bringing imprisonment rates
down. By 2020, the imprisonment rate at the federal level had fallen to 43
persons out of every 100,000 U.S. residents—and it continues to decline. In
just one year (between 2019 and 2020), federal prisons showed a 40%
decrease in new admissions. State prisons showed similar declines, with the
largest percentage declines in admissions in California, which had 66% fewer
admissions in 2020 than in 2019, and in New York where admissions to
prison decreased by 60%. Although some of the decline in prison admissions
was the result of new government policies, the bulk of it was due to the fact
that courts across the country altered their operations during the COVID
epidemic, leading to delays in trials and the sentencing of persons. Alongside
fewer admissions, there have also been increases in the number of persons
released from prison, but when viewed historically American prison
populations continue to be extraordinarily high ( Exhibit 1-1). Critics of
today’s continued high rates of imprisonment sometimes refer to our country
as a carceral state. The term carceral state implies that government power is
being used to incapacitate, incarcerate, detain, or otherwise limit the
physical freedom of vast numbers of people, extending far beyond that
necessary to ensure a safe and just society. Of course, the words “safe” and
“just” are critical and reveal that social justice concerns need to be balanced
with public safety in determining appropriate levels of incapacitation not only
in the United States but in any society. Those who support the widespread
use of incarceration argue that public safety can be assured only through
incapacitation of those who are dangerous. But “dangerousness” can be a
slippery concept when applied to social activity that may 3 1/26/25, 4:40 PM
The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now? https://prod.reader-
ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 2/15 not physically harm others
directly—as when those who use (or even trac in) illicit drugs are arrested
and prosecuted. Nora Krinitsky, Director of the Carceral State Project at the
University of Michigan, says, “The term carceral state often calls to mind
institutions of connement like jails, detention centers, prisons, but … it also
comprises a wide range of policies, practices, and institutions that scrutinize
individuals and communities both before and after their contact with the
criminal justice system.” We might also add that, in a true carceral state, the
justice system employs millions of men and women who directly depend
upon high rates of imprisonment and detention to earn a living. 4 1/26/25,
4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now? https://prod.reader-
ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 3/15 EXHIBIT 1–1 The Growth of
Imprisonment in the United States Page 5 Source: Bureau of Justice Statistics
1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now?
https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 4/15 The question that needs to be
answered is, “Why?” Why did the American correctional population increase
so dramatically in recent decades even in the face of declining crime rates?
And why is the United States still in the midst of an era of mass
incarceration? The answer to these questions, like the answers to most
societal enigmas, is far from simple, and it has a number of dimensions. We
identify four such dimensions in the material that follows. First, it is
important to recognize that get-tough-on-crime laws, such as the
threestrikes (and two-strikes) laws that were enacted in many states during
the mid1990s, fueled rapid increases in prison populations. The conservative
attitudes that gave birth to those laws are still largely with us, and much of
the increase in state prison populations has come from imprisoning more
people for violent crimes for longer periods of time. At the federal level, the
Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 encouraged longer
prison sentences for more crimes and led to the adoption of harsher
sentencing regimes throughout the nation. A second reason that correctional
populations increased rapidly during the 1990s and the decade that followed
can be found in the Twentieth Century’s War on Drugs. The War on Drugs led
to the arrest and conviction of many people, resulting in larger correctional
populations in nearly every jurisdiction (especially within the federal
correctional system). The congressional Colson Task Force on Federal
Corrections, which issued its report ten years ago, found that “The biggest
driver of growth” in the federal prison population was “federally sentenced
drug oenders, almost all of whom were convicted of drug tracking” (see
Exhibit 1–2 for drug arrests, and compare it with Exhibit 1–1 to see the
impact of drug arrests on prison populations). Many drug arrestees—
especially trackers—are sentenced to lengthy prison terms, further
increasing the number of people in prison, and many such people have
multiple convictions, including use (or possession) of a rearm during a drug
transaction. So although today’s drive to legalize marijuana and other
previously illicit substances may lead to fewer imprisoned persons in the
future, the last century’s War on Drugs goes a long way 5 6 1/26/25, 4:40 PM
The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now? https://prod.reader-
ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 5/15 toward explaining the historical
growth in correctional populations even while the rate of “serious crime” in
the United States was declining. 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where
Do We Go Now?
https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 6/15 EXHIBIT 1–2 U.S. Drug Arrests,
1980–2020. Page 6 Source: Bureau of Justice Statistics. 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The
Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now? https://prod.reader-
ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 7/15 Third, parole authorities became
increasingly reluctant to release people on parole for fear of the civil liability
that they could face should those people commit new crimes. This
contributed to a further expansion of prison populations. Fourth, as some
observers have noted, the corrections boom created its own growth dynamic.
As ever increasing numbers of people were placed on probation, the
likelihood of probation violations increased. Prison sentences for more and
more violators resulted in larger prison populations. When people who have
been in prison are released, they swell the numbers of those on parole,
leading to a larger number of parole violations, which in turn can still fuel
further prison growth. Statistics show that the number of persons convicted
of violating the criminal law and then sent to prison for at least the second
time has increased steadily, accounting for approximately 35 percent of the
total number of admissions. One analysis of the dramatic increase in
imprisonment, found that it “was not driven by a centralized national-level
strategy for dealing with crime and was not based on a coherent body of
empirical knowledge demonstrating that prisons improved public safety.”
Instead, said the report, “it was the product of layers of legislative decisions,
primarily enacted at the state level, to charge and imprison more oenders,
increase sentences, limit prison releases, and expand” prison capacity. These
decisions led to a new era in which prisons became primary weapons in what
was then seen as the nation’s war on drugs and on crime. 7 8 1/26/25, 4:40
PM The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now? https://prod.reader-
ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 8/15 U.S. correctional populations
have grown dramatically over the past 40 years, as this image of
incarcerated persons living in a modified gymnasium at the Mule Creek State
Prison in Ione, California, illustrates. What factors led to a substantial
increase in the use of imprisonment in this country beginning in the 1980s?
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do
We Go Now?
https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 9/15 Turning the Corner in U.S. Prison
Populations While get-tough-on-crime attitudes continue to persist among
signicant segments of American society today, they have largely been
trumped by economic realities. State budgets have been hard pressed to
continue funding prison expansion, and the number of people behind bars
began to show a slow decline beginning around 2010. Alternatives to
imprisonment, most of which will be discussed in coming chapters, are many
and include probation, nes, and community service—to which people who
have been convicted are being sentenced in increasing numbers. In order to
reduce correctional expenditures even further, some states are using forms
of early release from prison, shortening time served, reducing the period of
probation or parole supervision, and shifting the responsibility of supervising
people who have been convicted to county-level governments (and away
from state responsibility). We will examine these innovations at various
places throughout this text. As states grappled with the economic realities of
reduced revenues and constrained budgets beginning in the early 2000s, it
became increasingly important to get the most “bang for the buck,” so to
speak, out of correctional programs. The realization that imprisonment had
become too expensive, combined with a number of other factors, led to a
decline in prison populations. Other reasons for the decline include: 1.
Criminal justice reform policies—Many states have enacted policies aimed at
reducing the use of imprisonment and promoting alternatives to
incarceration, such as drug courts and community supervision programs. 2. A
decrease in crime rates—In recent years, crime rates in the United States
have generally been declining (contrary to what the popular media might
depict), which has contributed to a reduction in the number of people being
sentenced to prison. 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do We Go
Now? https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 10/15 Page 7 In her incoming
presidential address to the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences, Melissa
Hickman Barlow outlined a plan for the implementation of sustainable
justice. Barlow dened sustainable justice as “criminal laws and criminal
justice institutions, policies, and practices that achieve justice in the present
without compromising the ability of future generations to have the benets of
a just society.” Barlow’s call for aordable justice, based on principles and
operating practices that can be carried into the future without bankrupting
generations yet to come, represents an important turning point in our
nation’s approach to corrections and other justice institutions. These and
other factors have contributed to a reduction in the number of people being
incarcerated in the United States and a growing recognition of the need to
adopt evidence-based policies. As we will see in the next chapter, the
evidencebased movement in corrections seeks to evaluate programs and
services to see which are the most eective relative to their costs. Evidence-
based practices play an important role in correctional administration today—
and should contribute much to the call for sustainable justice and continue to
contribute to a decline in the use of imprisonment. 3. Reforms to sentencing
laws—Some states have passed laws to reduce mandatory minimum
sentences and provide greater discretion to judges in imposing sentences,
which has, in turn, led to fewer people being sentenced to long prison terms.
4. Decarceration initiatives—In response to overcrowding, budget
constraints, and public pressure, some states have implemented initiatives
to safely reduce their prison populations, such as early release programs and
parole reforms. 5. Changes in drug enforcement policies—Some states have
adopted reforms to their drug enforcement policies, such as reducing
sentences for drug oenses and expanding access to treatment, all of which
have reduced the number of people incarcerated for drug-related crimes. 9
1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now?
https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 11/15 Correctional Employment As
correctional populations peaked, increasing budgets led to a dramatically
expanding correctional workforce and enhanced employment opportunities
within the eld. Much of that momentum continues into the present day. In
2023, for example, the North Carolina Department of Public Safety oered a
$7,000 hiring bonus for new correctional ocers (COs), and the Tennessee
Department of Corrections provided a $5,000 bonus to newly hired ocers. At
the same time, the Nebraska Department of Correctional Services provided a
bonus of $15,000 for experienced COs (i.e., for those at the rank of corporal
or higher) who were willing to work at the Nebraska State Penitentiary and
other select facilities. According to historical reports, persons employed in
the corrections eld totaled approximately 27,000 in 1950. By 1975, the
number had risen to about 75,000. Estimates published by the Bureau of
Labor Statistics (BLS) in 2021 show that over 400,000 government
employees throughout the United States worked in corrections, with a total
monthly payroll of around $3 billion. BLS also found that the average hourly
and annual wage for COs and jailers was $25.69 and $53,420, respectively.
Of course, supervisors and those at higher rank earned more than the
average. Similarly, those who begin work with college degrees are paid
more. Exhibit 1–3 shows some of the employment possibilities in corrections.
Page 8 10 11 12 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now?
https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 12/15 EXHIBIT 1–3 Careers in
Corrections 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now?
https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 13/15 Prisons mean jobs and can
contribute greatly to the health of local economies. Some economically
disadvantaged towns—from Tupper Lake, in the Adirondack Mountains of
upstate New York, to Edgeeld, South Carolina—recently cashed in on the
corrections industry, having successfully competed to become sites for new
prisons. Although prison populations have recently fallen, a number of states
are building new prisons to replace failing prison infrastructure with safer,
more secure facilities that accommodate the rehabilitation of incarcerated
people. In 2021, for example, the state of Alabama announced the planned
construction of two new correctional facilities to be built on state-owned
land. The two new facilities, each designed to hold 4,000 persons in
connement will cost approximately $700 million to build and will contribute
about $30 million a year to the local economy. Academic teacher Activity
therapy administrator Business manager Case manager Chaplain Chemical
dependency manager Children’s services counselor Classication ocer Clinical
social worker Correctional ocer Dietary ocer Drug court coordinator Field
administrator Fugitive apprehension ocer Human services counselor Job
placement ocer Mental health clinician Parole caseworker Parole ocer
Presentence investigator Probation ocer Program ocer Program specialist
Programmer/analyst Psychologist Recreation coordinator Social worker
Statistician Substance abuse counselor Unit leader Victim advocate
Vocational instructor Warden/superintendent Youth services coordinator
Youth supervisor 13 14 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do We
Go Now? https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-
uuid-3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 14/15 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The
Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now? https://prod.reader-
ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 15/15
CO1-1 THE CARCERAL STATE: WHERE DO WE GO NOW? One amazing fact
stands out from all the contemporary information about American
corrections: While serious crime in the United States consistently declined
throughout much of the 1990s, and while such declines continued into the
rst two decades of the 21st century, the number of people under correctional
supervision in this country—not just the number of people who have been
convicted and sent to prison—started to skyrocket during the 1980s, and
only began to drop after 2010. Crime rates are approximately 20 percent
lower today than they were in 1980. In fact, they are near their lowest level
in 35 years. But the number of people under correctional supervision
increased almost 300% between 1980 and 2010— when it nally started to
decline. During that period, the federal prison population went from 11
incarcerated persons for every 100,000 U.S. residents to 68. Annual
spending on the federal prison system rose 600 percent, from $970 million to
more than $6.7 billion in ination-adjusted dollars. States, like the federal
government, recorded sharp increases in incarceration and corrections costs
over the three 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now?
https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 1/15 decades from 1980 to 2010.
Numbers like these show that the era of mass incarceration, created a
widescale reliance on the use of imprisonment to address the nation’s
problems. By the turn of the 21st century, the provision of correctional
services of all kinds had become a major strain on government budgets at all
levels. Page 4 Today, progress is being made in bringing imprisonment rates
down. By 2020, the imprisonment rate at the federal level had fallen to 43
persons out of every 100,000 U.S. residents—and it continues to decline. In
just one year (between 2019 and 2020), federal prisons showed a 40%
decrease in new admissions. State prisons showed similar declines, with the
largest percentage declines in admissions in California, which had 66% fewer
admissions in 2020 than in 2019, and in New York where admissions to
prison decreased by 60%. Although some of the decline in prison admissions
was the result of new government policies, the bulk of it was due to the fact
that courts across the country altered their operations during the COVID
epidemic, leading to delays in trials and the sentencing of persons. Alongside
fewer admissions, there have also been increases in the number of persons
released from prison, but when viewed historically American prison
populations continue to be extraordinarily high ( Exhibit 1-1). Critics of
today’s continued high rates of imprisonment sometimes refer to our country
as a carceral state. The term carceral state implies that government power is
being used to incapacitate, incarcerate, detain, or otherwise limit the
physical freedom of vast numbers of people, extending far beyond that
necessary to ensure a safe and just society. Of course, the words “safe” and
“just” are critical and reveal that social justice concerns need to be balanced
with public safety in determining appropriate levels of incapacitation not only
in the United States but in any society. Those who support the widespread
use of incarceration argue that public safety can be assured only through
incapacitation of those who are dangerous. But “dangerousness” can be a
slippery concept when applied to social activity that may 3 1/26/25, 4:40 PM
The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now? https://prod.reader-
ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 2/15 not physically harm others
directly—as when those who use (or even trac in) illicit drugs are arrested
and prosecuted. Nora Krinitsky, Director of the Carceral State Project at the
University of Michigan, says, “The term carceral state often calls to mind
institutions of connement like jails, detention centers, prisons, but … it also
comprises a wide range of policies, practices, and institutions that scrutinize
individuals and communities both before and after their contact with the
criminal justice system.” We might also add that, in a true carceral state, the
justice system employs millions of men and women who directly depend
upon high rates of imprisonment and detention to earn a living. 4 1/26/25,
4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now? https://prod.reader-
ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 3/15 EXHIBIT 1–1 The Growth of
Imprisonment in the United States Page 5 Source: Bureau of Justice Statistics
1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now?
https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 4/15 The question that needs to be
answered is, “Why?” Why did the American correctional population increase
so dramatically in recent decades even in the face of declining crime rates?
And why is the United States still in the midst of an era of mass
incarceration? The answer to these questions, like the answers to most
societal enigmas, is far from simple, and it has a number of dimensions. We
identify four such dimensions in the material that follows. First, it is
important to recognize that get-tough-on-crime laws, such as the
threestrikes (and two-strikes) laws that were enacted in many states during
the mid1990s, fueled rapid increases in prison populations. The conservative
attitudes that gave birth to those laws are still largely with us, and much of
the increase in state prison populations has come from imprisoning more
people for violent crimes for longer periods of time. At the federal level, the
Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 encouraged longer
prison sentences for more crimes and led to the adoption of harsher
sentencing regimes throughout the nation. A second reason that correctional
populations increased rapidly during the 1990s and the decade that followed
can be found in the Twentieth Century’s War on Drugs. The War on Drugs led
to the arrest and conviction of many people, resulting in larger correctional
populations in nearly every jurisdiction (especially within the federal
correctional system). The congressional Colson Task Force on Federal
Corrections, which issued its report ten years ago, found that “The biggest
driver of growth” in the federal prison population was “federally sentenced
drug oenders, almost all of whom were convicted of drug tracking” (see
Exhibit 1–2 for drug arrests, and compare it with Exhibit 1–1 to see the
impact of drug arrests on prison populations). Many drug arrestees—
especially trackers—are sentenced to lengthy prison terms, further
increasing the number of people in prison, and many such people have
multiple convictions, including use (or possession) of a rearm during a drug
transaction. So although today’s drive to legalize marijuana and other
previously illicit substances may lead to fewer imprisoned persons in the
future, the last century’s War on Drugs goes a long way 5 6 1/26/25, 4:40 PM
The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now? https://prod.reader-
ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 5/15 toward explaining the historical
growth in correctional populations even while the rate of “serious crime” in
the United States was declining. 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where
Do We Go Now?
https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 6/15 EXHIBIT 1–2 U.S. Drug Arrests,
1980–2020. Page 6 Source: Bureau of Justice Statistics. 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The
Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now? https://prod.reader-
ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 7/15 Third, parole authorities became
increasingly reluctant to release people on parole for fear of the civil liability
that they could face should those people commit new crimes. This
contributed to a further expansion of prison populations. Fourth, as some
observers have noted, the corrections boom created its own growth dynamic.
As ever increasing numbers of people were placed on probation, the
likelihood of probation violations increased. Prison sentences for more and
more violators resulted in larger prison populations. When people who have
been in prison are released, they swell the numbers of those on parole,
leading to a larger number of parole violations, which in turn can still fuel
further prison growth. Statistics show that the number of persons convicted
of violating the criminal law and then sent to prison for at least the second
time has increased steadily, accounting for approximately 35 percent of the
total number of admissions. One analysis of the dramatic increase in
imprisonment, found that it “was not driven by a centralized national-level
strategy for dealing with crime and was not based on a coherent body of
empirical knowledge demonstrating that prisons improved public safety.”
Instead, said the report, “it was the product of layers of legislative decisions,
primarily enacted at the state level, to charge and imprison more oenders,
increase sentences, limit prison releases, and expand” prison capacity. These
decisions led to a new era in which prisons became primary weapons in what
was then seen as the nation’s war on drugs and on crime. 7 8 1/26/25, 4:40
PM The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now? https://prod.reader-
ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 8/15 U.S. correctional populations
have grown dramatically over the past 40 years, as this image of
incarcerated persons living in a modified gymnasium at the Mule Creek State
Prison in Ione, California, illustrates. What factors led to a substantial
increase in the use of imprisonment in this country beginning in the 1980s?
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do
We Go Now?
https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 9/15 Turning the Corner in U.S. Prison
Populations While get-tough-on-crime attitudes continue to persist among
signicant segments of American society today, they have largely been
trumped by economic realities. State budgets have been hard pressed to
continue funding prison expansion, and the number of people behind bars
began to show a slow decline beginning around 2010. Alternatives to
imprisonment, most of which will be discussed in coming chapters, are many
and include probation, nes, and community service—to which people who
have been convicted are being sentenced in increasing numbers. In order to
reduce correctional expenditures even further, some states are using forms
of early release from prison, shortening time served, reducing the period of
probation or parole supervision, and shifting the responsibility of supervising
people who have been convicted to county-level governments (and away
from state responsibility). We will examine these innovations at various
places throughout this text. As states grappled with the economic realities of
reduced revenues and constrained budgets beginning in the early 2000s, it
became increasingly important to get the most “bang for the buck,” so to
speak, out of correctional programs. The realization that imprisonment had
become too expensive, combined with a number of other factors, led to a
decline in prison populations. Other reasons for the decline include: 1.
Criminal justice reform policies—Many states have enacted policies aimed at
reducing the use of imprisonment and promoting alternatives to
incarceration, such as drug courts and community supervision programs. 2. A
decrease in crime rates—In recent years, crime rates in the United States
have generally been declining (contrary to what the popular media might
depict), which has contributed to a reduction in the number of people being
sentenced to prison. 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do We Go
Now? https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 10/15 Page 7 In her incoming
presidential address to the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences, Melissa
Hickman Barlow outlined a plan for the implementation of sustainable
justice. Barlow dened sustainable justice as “criminal laws and criminal
justice institutions, policies, and practices that achieve justice in the present
without compromising the ability of future generations to have the benets of
a just society.” Barlow’s call for aordable justice, based on principles and
operating practices that can be carried into the future without bankrupting
generations yet to come, represents an important turning point in our
nation’s approach to corrections and other justice institutions. These and
other factors have contributed to a reduction in the number of people being
incarcerated in the United States and a growing recognition of the need to
adopt evidence-based policies. As we will see in the next chapter, the
evidencebased movement in corrections seeks to evaluate programs and
services to see which are the most eective relative to their costs. Evidence-
based practices play an important role in correctional administration today—
and should contribute much to the call for sustainable justice and continue to
contribute to a decline in the use of imprisonment. 3. Reforms to sentencing
laws—Some states have passed laws to reduce mandatory minimum
sentences and provide greater discretion to judges in imposing sentences,
which has, in turn, led to fewer people being sentenced to long prison terms.
4. Decarceration initiatives—In response to overcrowding, budget
constraints, and public pressure, some states have implemented initiatives
to safely reduce their prison populations, such as early release programs and
parole reforms. 5. Changes in drug enforcement policies—Some states have
adopted reforms to their drug enforcement policies, such as reducing
sentences for drug oenses and expanding access to treatment, all of which
have reduced the number of people incarcerated for drug-related crimes. 9
1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now?
https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 11/15 Correctional Employment As
correctional populations peaked, increasing budgets led to a dramatically
expanding correctional workforce and enhanced employment opportunities
within the eld. Much of that momentum continues into the present day. In
2023, for example, the North Carolina Department of Public Safety oered a
$7,000 hiring bonus for new correctional ocers (COs), and the Tennessee
Department of Corrections provided a $5,000 bonus to newly hired ocers. At
the same time, the Nebraska Department of Correctional Services provided a
bonus of $15,000 for experienced COs (i.e., for those at the rank of corporal
or higher) who were willing to work at the Nebraska State Penitentiary and
other select facilities. According to historical reports, persons employed in
the corrections eld totaled approximately 27,000 in 1950. By 1975, the
number had risen to about 75,000. Estimates published by the Bureau of
Labor Statistics (BLS) in 2021 show that over 400,000 government
employees throughout the United States worked in corrections, with a total
monthly payroll of around $3 billion. BLS also found that the average hourly
and annual wage for COs and jailers was $25.69 and $53,420, respectively.
Of course, supervisors and those at higher rank earned more than the
average. Similarly, those who begin work with college degrees are paid
more. Exhibit 1–3 shows some of the employment possibilities in corrections.
Page 8 10 11 12 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now?
https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 12/15 EXHIBIT 1–3 Careers in
Corrections 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now?
https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 13/15 Prisons mean jobs and can
contribute greatly to the health of local economies. Some economically
disadvantaged towns—from Tupper Lake, in the Adirondack Mountains of
upstate New York, to Edgeeld, South Carolina—recently cashed in on the
corrections industry, having successfully competed to become sites for new
prisons. Although prison populations have recently fallen, a number of states
are building new prisons to replace failing prison infrastructure with safer,
more secure facilities that accommodate the rehabilitation of incarcerated
people. In 2021, for example, the state of Alabama announced the planned
construction of two new correctional facilities to be built on state-owned
land. The two new facilities, each designed to hold 4,000 persons in
connement will cost approximately $700 million to build and will contribute
about $30 million a year to the local economy. Academic teacher Activity
therapy administrator Business manager Case manager Chaplain Chemical
dependency manager Children’s services counselor Classication ocer Clinical
social worker Correctional ocer Dietary ocer Drug court coordinator Field
administrator Fugitive apprehension ocer Human services counselor Job
placement ocer Mental health clinician Parole caseworker Parole ocer
Presentence investigator Probation ocer Program ocer Program specialist
Programmer/analyst Psychologist Recreation coordinator Social worker
Statistician Substance abuse counselor Unit leader Victim advocate
Vocational instructor Warden/superintendent Youth services coordinator
Youth supervisor 13 14 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do We
Go Now? https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-
uuid-3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 14/15 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The
Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now? https://prod.reader-
ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 15/15
CO1-1 THE CARCERAL STATE: WHERE DO WE GO NOW? One amazing fact
stands out from all the contemporary information about American
corrections: While serious crime in the United States consistently declined
throughout much of the 1990s, and while such declines continued into the
rst two decades of the 21st century, the number of people under correctional
supervision in this country—not just the number of people who have been
convicted and sent to prison—started to skyrocket during the 1980s, and
only began to drop after 2010. Crime rates are approximately 20 percent
lower today than they were in 1980. In fact, they are near their lowest level
in 35 years. But the number of people under correctional supervision
increased almost 300% between 1980 and 2010— when it nally started to
decline. During that period, the federal prison population went from 11
incarcerated persons for every 100,000 U.S. residents to 68. Annual
spending on the federal prison system rose 600 percent, from $970 million to
more than $6.7 billion in ination-adjusted dollars. States, like the federal
government, recorded sharp increases in incarceration and corrections costs
over the three 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now?
https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 1/15 decades from 1980 to 2010.
Numbers like these show that the era of mass incarceration, created a
widescale reliance on the use of imprisonment to address the nation’s
problems. By the turn of the 21st century, the provision of correctional
services of all kinds had become a major strain on government budgets at all
levels. Page 4 Today, progress is being made in bringing imprisonment rates
down. By 2020, the imprisonment rate at the federal level had fallen to 43
persons out of every 100,000 U.S. residents—and it continues to decline. In
just one year (between 2019 and 2020), federal prisons showed a 40%
decrease in new admissions. State prisons showed similar declines, with the
largest percentage declines in admissions in California, which had 66% fewer
admissions in 2020 than in 2019, and in New York where admissions to
prison decreased by 60%. Although some of the decline in prison admissions
was the result of new government policies, the bulk of it was due to the fact
that courts across the country altered their operations during the COVID
epidemic, leading to delays in trials and the sentencing of persons. Alongside
fewer admissions, there have also been increases in the number of persons
released from prison, but when viewed historically American prison
populations continue to be extraordinarily high ( Exhibit 1-1). Critics of
today’s continued high rates of imprisonment sometimes refer to our country
as a carceral state. The term carceral state implies that government power is
being used to incapacitate, incarcerate, detain, or otherwise limit the
physical freedom of vast numbers of people, extending far beyond that
necessary to ensure a safe and just society. Of course, the words “safe” and
“just” are critical and reveal that social justice concerns need to be balanced
with public safety in determining appropriate levels of incapacitation not only
in the United States but in any society. Those who support the widespread
use of incarceration argue that public safety can be assured only through
incapacitation of those who are dangerous. But “dangerousness” can be a
slippery concept when applied to social activity that may 3 1/26/25, 4:40 PM
The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now? https://prod.reader-
ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 2/15 not physically harm others
directly—as when those who use (or even trac in) illicit drugs are arrested
and prosecuted. Nora Krinitsky, Director of the Carceral State Project at the
University of Michigan, says, “The term carceral state often calls to mind
institutions of connement like jails, detention centers, prisons, but … it also
comprises a wide range of policies, practices, and institutions that scrutinize
individuals and communities both before and after their contact with the
criminal justice system.” We might also add that, in a true carceral state, the
justice system employs millions of men and women who directly depend
upon high rates of imprisonment and detention to earn a living. 4 1/26/25,
4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now? https://prod.reader-
ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 3/15 EXHIBIT 1–1 The Growth of
Imprisonment in the United States Page 5 Source: Bureau of Justice Statistics
1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now?
https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 4/15 The question that needs to be
answered is, “Why?” Why did the American correctional population increase
so dramatically in recent decades even in the face of declining crime rates?
And why is the United States still in the midst of an era of mass
incarceration? The answer to these questions, like the answers to most
societal enigmas, is far from simple, and it has a number of dimensions. We
identify four such dimensions in the material that follows. First, it is
important to recognize that get-tough-on-crime laws, such as the
threestrikes (and two-strikes) laws that were enacted in many states during
the mid1990s, fueled rapid increases in prison populations. The conservative
attitudes that gave birth to those laws are still largely with us, and much of
the increase in state prison populations has come from imprisoning more
people for violent crimes for longer periods of time. At the federal level, the
Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 encouraged longer
prison sentences for more crimes and led to the adoption of harsher
sentencing regimes throughout the nation. A second reason that correctional
populations increased rapidly during the 1990s and the decade that followed
can be found in the Twentieth Century’s War on Drugs. The War on Drugs led
to the arrest and conviction of many people, resulting in larger correctional
populations in nearly every jurisdiction (especially within the federal
correctional system). The congressional Colson Task Force on Federal
Corrections, which issued its report ten years ago, found that “The biggest
driver of growth” in the federal prison population was “federally sentenced
drug oenders, almost all of whom were convicted of drug tracking” (see
Exhibit 1–2 for drug arrests, and compare it with Exhibit 1–1 to see the
impact of drug arrests on prison populations). Many drug arrestees—
especially trackers—are sentenced to lengthy prison terms, further
increasing the number of people in prison, and many such people have
multiple convictions, including use (or possession) of a rearm during a drug
transaction. So although today’s drive to legalize marijuana and other
previously illicit substances may lead to fewer imprisoned persons in the
future, the last century’s War on Drugs goes a long way 5 6 1/26/25, 4:40 PM
The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now? https://prod.reader-
ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 5/15 toward explaining the historical
growth in correctional populations even while the rate of “serious crime” in
the United States was declining. 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where
Do We Go Now?
https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 6/15 EXHIBIT 1–2 U.S. Drug Arrests,
1980–2020. Page 6 Source: Bureau of Justice Statistics. 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The
Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now? https://prod.reader-
ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 7/15 Third, parole authorities became
increasingly reluctant to release people on parole for fear of the civil liability
that they could face should those people commit new crimes. This
contributed to a further expansion of prison populations. Fourth, as some
observers have noted, the corrections boom created its own growth dynamic.
As ever increasing numbers of people were placed on probation, the
likelihood of probation violations increased. Prison sentences for more and
more violators resulted in larger prison populations. When people who have
been in prison are released, they swell the numbers of those on parole,
leading to a larger number of parole violations, which in turn can still fuel
further prison growth. Statistics show that the number of persons convicted
of violating the criminal law and then sent to prison for at least the second
time has increased steadily, accounting for approximately 35 percent of the
total number of admissions. One analysis of the dramatic increase in
imprisonment, found that it “was not driven by a centralized national-level
strategy for dealing with crime and was not based on a coherent body of
empirical knowledge demonstrating that prisons improved public safety.”
Instead, said the report, “it was the product of layers of legislative decisions,
primarily enacted at the state level, to charge and imprison more oenders,
increase sentences, limit prison releases, and expand” prison capacity. These
decisions led to a new era in which prisons became primary weapons in what
was then seen as the nation’s war on drugs and on crime. 7 8 1/26/25, 4:40
PM The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now? https://prod.reader-
ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 8/15 U.S. correctional populations
have grown dramatically over the past 40 years, as this image of
incarcerated persons living in a modified gymnasium at the Mule Creek State
Prison in Ione, California, illustrates. What factors led to a substantial
increase in the use of imprisonment in this country beginning in the 1980s?
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do
We Go Now?
https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 9/15 Turning the Corner in U.S. Prison
Populations While get-tough-on-crime attitudes continue to persist among
signicant segments of American society today, they have largely been
trumped by economic realities. State budgets have been hard pressed to
continue funding prison expansion, and the number of people behind bars
began to show a slow decline beginning around 2010. Alternatives to
imprisonment, most of which will be discussed in coming chapters, are many
and include probation, nes, and community service—to which people who
have been convicted are being sentenced in increasing numbers. In order to
reduce correctional expenditures even further, some states are using forms
of early release from prison, shortening time served, reducing the period of
probation or parole supervision, and shifting the responsibility of supervising
people who have been convicted to county-level governments (and away
from state responsibility). We will examine these innovations at various
places throughout this text. As states grappled with the economic realities of
reduced revenues and constrained budgets beginning in the early 2000s, it
became increasingly important to get the most “bang for the buck,” so to
speak, out of correctional programs. The realization that imprisonment had
become too expensive, combined with a number of other factors, led to a
decline in prison populations. Other reasons for the decline include: 1.
Criminal justice reform policies—Many states have enacted policies aimed at
reducing the use of imprisonment and promoting alternatives to
incarceration, such as drug courts and community supervision programs. 2. A
decrease in crime rates—In recent years, crime rates in the United States
have generally been declining (contrary to what the popular media might
depict), which has contributed to a reduction in the number of people being
sentenced to prison. 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do We Go
Now? https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 10/15 Page 7 In her incoming
presidential address to the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences, Melissa
Hickman Barlow outlined a plan for the implementation of sustainable
justice. Barlow dened sustainable justice as “criminal laws and criminal
justice institutions, policies, and practices that achieve justice in the present
without compromising the ability of future generations to have the benets of
a just society.” Barlow’s call for aordable justice, based on principles and
operating practices that can be carried into the future without bankrupting
generations yet to come, represents an important turning point in our
nation’s approach to corrections and other justice institutions. These and
other factors have contributed to a reduction in the number of people being
incarcerated in the United States and a growing recognition of the need to
adopt evidence-based policies. As we will see in the next chapter, the
evidencebased movement in corrections seeks to evaluate programs and
services to see which are the most eective relative to their costs. Evidence-
based practices play an important role in correctional administration today—
and should contribute much to the call for sustainable justice and continue to
contribute to a decline in the use of imprisonment. 3. Reforms to sentencing
laws—Some states have passed laws to reduce mandatory minimum
sentences and provide greater discretion to judges in imposing sentences,
which has, in turn, led to fewer people being sentenced to long prison terms.
4. Decarceration initiatives—In response to overcrowding, budget
constraints, and public pressure, some states have implemented initiatives
to safely reduce their prison populations, such as early release programs and
parole reforms. 5. Changes in drug enforcement policies—Some states have
adopted reforms to their drug enforcement policies, such as reducing
sentences for drug oenses and expanding access to treatment, all of which
have reduced the number of people incarcerated for drug-related crimes. 9
1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now?
https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 11/15 Correctional Employment As
correctional populations peaked, increasing budgets led to a dramatically
expanding correctional workforce and enhanced employment opportunities
within the eld. Much of that momentum continues into the present day. In
2023, for example, the North Carolina Department of Public Safety oered a
$7,000 hiring bonus for new correctional ocers (COs), and the Tennessee
Department of Corrections provided a $5,000 bonus to newly hired ocers. At
the same time, the Nebraska Department of Correctional Services provided a
bonus of $15,000 for experienced COs (i.e., for those at the rank of corporal
or higher) who were willing to work at the Nebraska State Penitentiary and
other select facilities. According to historical reports, persons employed in
the corrections eld totaled approximately 27,000 in 1950. By 1975, the
number had risen to about 75,000. Estimates published by the Bureau of
Labor Statistics (BLS) in 2021 show that over 400,000 government
employees throughout the United States worked in corrections, with a total
monthly payroll of around $3 billion. BLS also found that the average hourly
and annual wage for COs and jailers was $25.69 and $53,420, respectively.
Of course, supervisors and those at higher rank earned more than the
average. Similarly, those who begin work with college degrees are paid
more. Exhibit 1–3 shows some of the employment possibilities in corrections.
Page 8 10 11 12 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now?
https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 12/15 EXHIBIT 1–3 Careers in
Corrections 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now?
https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 13/15 Prisons mean jobs and can
contribute greatly to the health of local economies. Some economically
disadvantaged towns—from Tupper Lake, in the Adirondack Mountains of
upstate New York, to Edgeeld, South Carolina—recently cashed in on the
corrections industry, having successfully competed to become sites for new
prisons. Although prison populations have recently fallen, a number of states
are building new prisons to replace failing prison infrastructure with safer,
more secure facilities that accommodate the rehabilitation of incarcerated
people. In 2021, for example, the state of Alabama announced the planned
construction of two new correctional facilities to be built on state-owned
land. The two new facilities, each designed to hold 4,000 persons in
connement will cost approximately $700 million to build and will contribute
about $30 million a year to the local economy. Academic teacher Activity
therapy administrator Business manager Case manager Chaplain Chemical
dependency manager Children’s services counselor Classication ocer Clinical
social worker Correctional ocer Dietary ocer Drug court coordinator Field
administrator Fugitive apprehension ocer Human services counselor Job
placement ocer Mental health clinician Parole caseworker Parole ocer
Presentence investigator Probation ocer Program ocer Program specialist
Programmer/analyst Psychologist Recreation coordinator Social worker
Statistician Substance abuse counselor Unit leader Victim advocate
Vocational instructor Warden/superintendent Youth services coordinator
Youth supervisor 13 14 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do We
Go Now? https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-
uuid-3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 14/15 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The
Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now? https://prod.reader-
ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 15/15
CO1-1 THE CARCERAL STATE: WHERE DO WE GO NOW? One amazing fact
stands out from all the contemporary information about American
corrections: While serious crime in the United States consistently declined
throughout much of the 1990s, and while such declines continued into the
rst two decades of the 21st century, the number of people under correctional
supervision in this country—not just the number of people who have been
convicted and sent to prison—started to skyrocket during the 1980s, and
only began to drop after 2010. Crime rates are approximately 20 percent
lower today than they were in 1980. In fact, they are near their lowest level
in 35 years. But the number of people under correctional supervision
increased almost 300% between 1980 and 2010— when it nally started to
decline. During that period, the federal prison population went from 11
incarcerated persons for every 100,000 U.S. residents to 68. Annual
spending on the federal prison system rose 600 percent, from $970 million to
more than $6.7 billion in ination-adjusted dollars. States, like the federal
government, recorded sharp increases in incarceration and corrections costs
over the three 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now?
https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 1/15 decades from 1980 to 2010.
Numbers like these show that the era of mass incarceration, created a
widescale reliance on the use of imprisonment to address the nation’s
problems. By the turn of the 21st century, the provision of correctional
services of all kinds had become a major strain on government budgets at all
levels. Page 4 Today, progress is being made in bringing imprisonment rates
down. By 2020, the imprisonment rate at the federal level had fallen to 43
persons out of every 100,000 U.S. residents—and it continues to decline. In
just one year (between 2019 and 2020), federal prisons showed a 40%
decrease in new admissions. State prisons showed similar declines, with the
largest percentage declines in admissions in California, which had 66% fewer
admissions in 2020 than in 2019, and in New York where admissions to
prison decreased by 60%. Although some of the decline in prison admissions
was the result of new government policies, the bulk of it was due to the fact
that courts across the country altered their operations during the COVID
epidemic, leading to delays in trials and the sentencing of persons. Alongside
fewer admissions, there have also been increases in the number of persons
released from prison, but when viewed historically American prison
populations continue to be extraordinarily high ( Exhibit 1-1). Critics of
today’s continued high rates of imprisonment sometimes refer to our country
as a carceral state. The term carceral state implies that government power is
being used to incapacitate, incarcerate, detain, or otherwise limit the
physical freedom of vast numbers of people, extending far beyond that
necessary to ensure a safe and just society. Of course, the words “safe” and
“just” are critical and reveal that social justice concerns need to be balanced
with public safety in determining appropriate levels of incapacitation not only
in the United States but in any society. Those who support the widespread
use of incarceration argue that public safety can be assured only through
incapacitation of those who are dangerous. But “dangerousness” can be a
slippery concept when applied to social activity that may 3 1/26/25, 4:40 PM
The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now? https://prod.reader-
ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 2/15 not physically harm others
directly—as when those who use (or even trac in) illicit drugs are arrested
and prosecuted. Nora Krinitsky, Director of the Carceral State Project at the
University of Michigan, says, “The term carceral state often calls to mind
institutions of connement like jails, detention centers, prisons, but … it also
comprises a wide range of policies, practices, and institutions that scrutinize
individuals and communities both before and after their contact with the
criminal justice system.” We might also add that, in a true carceral state, the
justice system employs millions of men and women who directly depend
upon high rates of imprisonment and detention to earn a living. 4 1/26/25,
4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now? https://prod.reader-
ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 3/15 EXHIBIT 1–1 The Growth of
Imprisonment in the United States Page 5 Source: Bureau of Justice Statistics
1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now?
https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 4/15 The question that needs to be
answered is, “Why?” Why did the American correctional population increase
so dramatically in recent decades even in the face of declining crime rates?
And why is the United States still in the midst of an era of mass
incarceration? The answer to these questions, like the answers to most
societal enigmas, is far from simple, and it has a number of dimensions. We
identify four such dimensions in the material that follows. First, it is
important to recognize that get-tough-on-crime laws, such as the
threestrikes (and two-strikes) laws that were enacted in many states during
the mid1990s, fueled rapid increases in prison populations. The conservative
attitudes that gave birth to those laws are still largely with us, and much of
the increase in state prison populations has come from imprisoning more
people for violent crimes for longer periods of time. At the federal level, the
Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 encouraged longer
prison sentences for more crimes and led to the adoption of harsher
sentencing regimes throughout the nation. A second reason that correctional
populations increased rapidly during the 1990s and the decade that followed
can be found in the Twentieth Century’s War on Drugs. The War on Drugs led
to the arrest and conviction of many people, resulting in larger correctional
populations in nearly every jurisdiction (especially within the federal
correctional system). The congressional Colson Task Force on Federal
Corrections, which issued its report ten years ago, found that “The biggest
driver of growth” in the federal prison population was “federally sentenced
drug oenders, almost all of whom were convicted of drug tracking” (see
Exhibit 1–2 for drug arrests, and compare it with Exhibit 1–1 to see the
impact of drug arrests on prison populations). Many drug arrestees—
especially trackers—are sentenced to lengthy prison terms, further
increasing the number of people in prison, and many such people have
multiple convictions, including use (or possession) of a rearm during a drug
transaction. So although today’s drive to legalize marijuana and other
previously illicit substances may lead to fewer imprisoned persons in the
future, the last century’s War on Drugs goes a long way 5 6 1/26/25, 4:40 PM
The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now? https://prod.reader-
ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 5/15 toward explaining the historical
growth in correctional populations even while the rate of “serious crime” in
the United States was declining. 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where
Do We Go Now?
https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 6/15 EXHIBIT 1–2 U.S. Drug Arrests,
1980–2020. Page 6 Source: Bureau of Justice Statistics. 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The
Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now? https://prod.reader-
ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 7/15 Third, parole authorities became
increasingly reluctant to release people on parole for fear of the civil liability
that they could face should those people commit new crimes. This
contributed to a further expansion of prison populations. Fourth, as some
observers have noted, the corrections boom created its own growth dynamic.
As ever increasing numbers of people were placed on probation, the
likelihood of probation violations increased. Prison sentences for more and
more violators resulted in larger prison populations. When people who have
been in prison are released, they swell the numbers of those on parole,
leading to a larger number of parole violations, which in turn can still fuel
further prison growth. Statistics show that the number of persons convicted
of violating the criminal law and then sent to prison for at least the second
time has increased steadily, accounting for approximately 35 percent of the
total number of admissions. One analysis of the dramatic increase in
imprisonment, found that it “was not driven by a centralized national-level
strategy for dealing with crime and was not based on a coherent body of
empirical knowledge demonstrating that prisons improved public safety.”
Instead, said the report, “it was the product of layers of legislative decisions,
primarily enacted at the state level, to charge and imprison more oenders,
increase sentences, limit prison releases, and expand” prison capacity. These
decisions led to a new era in which prisons became primary weapons in what
was then seen as the nation’s war on drugs and on crime. 7 8 1/26/25, 4:40
PM The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now? https://prod.reader-
ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 8/15 U.S. correctional populations
have grown dramatically over the past 40 years, as this image of
incarcerated persons living in a modified gymnasium at the Mule Creek State
Prison in Ione, California, illustrates. What factors led to a substantial
increase in the use of imprisonment in this country beginning in the 1980s?
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do
We Go Now?
https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 9/15 Turning the Corner in U.S. Prison
Populations While get-tough-on-crime attitudes continue to persist among
signicant segments of American society today, they have largely been
trumped by economic realities. State budgets have been hard pressed to
continue funding prison expansion, and the number of people behind bars
began to show a slow decline beginning around 2010. Alternatives to
imprisonment, most of which will be discussed in coming chapters, are many
and include probation, nes, and community service—to which people who
have been convicted are being sentenced in increasing numbers. In order to
reduce correctional expenditures even further, some states are using forms
of early release from prison, shortening time served, reducing the period of
probation or parole supervision, and shifting the responsibility of supervising
people who have been convicted to county-level governments (and away
from state responsibility). We will examine these innovations at various
places throughout this text. As states grappled with the economic realities of
reduced revenues and constrained budgets beginning in the early 2000s, it
became increasingly important to get the most “bang for the buck,” so to
speak, out of correctional programs. The realization that imprisonment had
become too expensive, combined with a number of other factors, led to a
decline in prison populations. Other reasons for the decline include: 1.
Criminal justice reform policies—Many states have enacted policies aimed at
reducing the use of imprisonment and promoting alternatives to
incarceration, such as drug courts and community supervision programs. 2. A
decrease in crime rates—In recent years, crime rates in the United States
have generally been declining (contrary to what the popular media might
depict), which has contributed to a reduction in the number of people being
sentenced to prison. 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do We Go
Now? https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 10/15 Page 7 In her incoming
presidential address to the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences, Melissa
Hickman Barlow outlined a plan for the implementation of sustainable
justice. Barlow dened sustainable justice as “criminal laws and criminal
justice institutions, policies, and practices that achieve justice in the present
without compromising the ability of future generations to have the benets of
a just society.” Barlow’s call for aordable justice, based on principles and
operating practices that can be carried into the future without bankrupting
generations yet to come, represents an important turning point in our
nation’s approach to corrections and other justice institutions. These and
other factors have contributed to a reduction in the number of people being
incarcerated in the United States and a growing recognition of the need to
adopt evidence-based policies. As we will see in the next chapter, the
evidencebased movement in corrections seeks to evaluate programs and
services to see which are the most eective relative to their costs. Evidence-
based practices play an important role in correctional administration today—
and should contribute much to the call for sustainable justice and continue to
contribute to a decline in the use of imprisonment. 3. Reforms to sentencing
laws—Some states have passed laws to reduce mandatory minimum
sentences and provide greater discretion to judges in imposing sentences,
which has, in turn, led to fewer people being sentenced to long prison terms.
4. Decarceration initiatives—In response to overcrowding, budget
constraints, and public pressure, some states have implemented initiatives
to safely reduce their prison populations, such as early release programs and
parole reforms. 5. Changes in drug enforcement policies—Some states have
adopted reforms to their drug enforcement policies, such as reducing
sentences for drug oenses and expanding access to treatment, all of which
have reduced the number of people incarcerated for drug-related crimes. 9
1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now?
https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 11/15 Correctional Employment As
correctional populations peaked, increasing budgets led to a dramatically
expanding correctional workforce and enhanced employment opportunities
within the eld. Much of that momentum continues into the present day. In
2023, for example, the North Carolina Department of Public Safety oered a
$7,000 hiring bonus for new correctional ocers (COs), and the Tennessee
Department of Corrections provided a $5,000 bonus to newly hired ocers. At
the same time, the Nebraska Department of Correctional Services provided a
bonus of $15,000 for experienced COs (i.e., for those at the rank of corporal
or higher) who were willing to work at the Nebraska State Penitentiary and
other select facilities. According to historical reports, persons employed in
the corrections eld totaled approximately 27,000 in 1950. By 1975, the
number had risen to about 75,000. Estimates published by the Bureau of
Labor Statistics (BLS) in 2021 show that over 400,000 government
employees throughout the United States worked in corrections, with a total
monthly payroll of around $3 billion. BLS also found that the average hourly
and annual wage for COs and jailers was $25.69 and $53,420, respectively.
Of course, supervisors and those at higher rank earned more than the
average. Similarly, those who begin work with college degrees are paid
more. Exhibit 1–3 shows some of the employment possibilities in corrections.
Page 8 10 11 12 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now?
https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 12/15 EXHIBIT 1–3 Careers in
Corrections 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now?
https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 13/15 Prisons mean jobs and can
contribute greatly to the health of local economies. Some economically
disadvantaged towns—from Tupper Lake, in the Adirondack Mountains of
upstate New York, to Edgeeld, South Carolina—recently cashed in on the
corrections industry, having successfully competed to become sites for new
prisons. Although prison populations have recently fallen, a number of states
are building new prisons to replace failing prison infrastructure with safer,
more secure facilities that accommodate the rehabilitation of incarcerated
people. In 2021, for example, the state of Alabama announced the planned
construction of two new correctional facilities to be built on state-owned
land. The two new facilities, each designed to hold 4,000 persons in
connement will cost approximately $700 million to build and will contribute
about $30 million a year to the local economy. Academic teacher Activity
therapy administrator Business manager Case manager Chaplain Chemical
dependency manager Children’s services counselor Classication ocer Clinical
social worker Correctional ocer Dietary ocer Drug court coordinator Field
administrator Fugitive apprehension ocer Human services counselor Job
placement ocer Mental health clinician Parole caseworker Parole ocer
Presentence investigator Probation ocer Program ocer Program specialist
Programmer/analyst Psychologist Recreation coordinator Social worker
Statistician Substance abuse counselor Unit leader Victim advocate
Vocational instructor Warden/superintendent Youth services coordinator
Youth supervisor 13 14 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do We
Go Now? https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-
uuid-3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 14/15 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The
Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now? https://prod.reader-
ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 15/15
CO1-1 THE CARCERAL STATE: WHERE DO WE GO NOW? One amazing fact
stands out from all the contemporary information about American
corrections: While serious crime in the United States consistently declined
throughout much of the 1990s, and while such declines continued into the
rst two decades of the 21st century, the number of people under correctional
supervision in this country—not just the number of people who have been
convicted and sent to prison—started to skyrocket during the 1980s, and
only began to drop after 2010. Crime rates are approximately 20 percent
lower today than they were in 1980. In fact, they are near their lowest level
in 35 years. But the number of people under correctional supervision
increased almost 300% between 1980 and 2010— when it nally started to
decline. During that period, the federal prison population went from 11
incarcerated persons for every 100,000 U.S. residents to 68. Annual
spending on the federal prison system rose 600 percent, from $970 million to
more than $6.7 billion in ination-adjusted dollars. States, like the federal
government, recorded sharp increases in incarceration and corrections costs
over the three 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now?
https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 1/15 decades from 1980 to 2010.
Numbers like these show that the era of mass incarceration, created a
widescale reliance on the use of imprisonment to address the nation’s
problems. By the turn of the 21st century, the provision of correctional
services of all kinds had become a major strain on government budgets at all
levels. Page 4 Today, progress is being made in bringing imprisonment rates
down. By 2020, the imprisonment rate at the federal level had fallen to 43
persons out of every 100,000 U.S. residents—and it continues to decline. In
just one year (between 2019 and 2020), federal prisons showed a 40%
decrease in new admissions. State prisons showed similar declines, with the
largest percentage declines in admissions in California, which had 66% fewer
admissions in 2020 than in 2019, and in New York where admissions to
prison decreased by 60%. Although some of the decline in prison admissions
was the result of new government policies, the bulk of it was due to the fact
that courts across the country altered their operations during the COVID
epidemic, leading to delays in trials and the sentencing of persons. Alongside
fewer admissions, there have also been increases in the number of persons
released from prison, but when viewed historically American prison
populations continue to be extraordinarily high ( Exhibit 1-1). Critics of
today’s continued high rates of imprisonment sometimes refer to our country
as a carceral state. The term carceral state implies that government power is
being used to incapacitate, incarcerate, detain, or otherwise limit the
physical freedom of vast numbers of people, extending far beyond that
necessary to ensure a safe and just society. Of course, the words “safe” and
“just” are critical and reveal that social justice concerns need to be balanced
with public safety in determining appropriate levels of incapacitation not only
in the United States but in any society. Those who support the widespread
use of incarceration argue that public safety can be assured only through
incapacitation of those who are dangerous. But “dangerousness” can be a
slippery concept when applied to social activity that may 3 1/26/25, 4:40 PM
The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now? https://prod.reader-
ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 2/15 not physically harm others
directly—as when those who use (or even trac in) illicit drugs are arrested
and prosecuted. Nora Krinitsky, Director of the Carceral State Project at the
University of Michigan, says, “The term carceral state often calls to mind
institutions of connement like jails, detention centers, prisons, but … it also
comprises a wide range of policies, practices, and institutions that scrutinize
individuals and communities both before and after their contact with the
criminal justice system.” We might also add that, in a true carceral state, the
justice system employs millions of men and women who directly depend
upon high rates of imprisonment and detention to earn a living. 4 1/26/25,
4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now? https://prod.reader-
ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 3/15 EXHIBIT 1–1 The Growth of
Imprisonment in the United States Page 5 Source: Bureau of Justice Statistics
1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now?
https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 4/15 The question that needs to be
answered is, “Why?” Why did the American correctional population increase
so dramatically in recent decades even in the face of declining crime rates?
And why is the United States still in the midst of an era of mass
incarceration? The answer to these questions, like the answers to most
societal enigmas, is far from simple, and it has a number of dimensions. We
identify four such dimensions in the material that follows. First, it is
important to recognize that get-tough-on-crime laws, such as the
threestrikes (and two-strikes) laws that were enacted in many states during
the mid1990s, fueled rapid increases in prison populations. The conservative
attitudes that gave birth to those laws are still largely with us, and much of
the increase in state prison populations has come from imprisoning more
people for violent crimes for longer periods of time. At the federal level, the
Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 encouraged longer
prison sentences for more crimes and led to the adoption of harsher
sentencing regimes throughout the nation. A second reason that correctional
populations increased rapidly during the 1990s and the decade that followed
can be found in the Twentieth Century’s War on Drugs. The War on Drugs led
to the arrest and conviction of many people, resulting in larger correctional
populations in nearly every jurisdiction (especially within the federal
correctional system). The congressional Colson Task Force on Federal
Corrections, which issued its report ten years ago, found that “The biggest
driver of growth” in the federal prison population was “federally sentenced
drug oenders, almost all of whom were convicted of drug tracking” (see
Exhibit 1–2 for drug arrests, and compare it with Exhibit 1–1 to see the
impact of drug arrests on prison populations). Many drug arrestees—
especially trackers—are sentenced to lengthy prison terms, further
increasing the number of people in prison, and many such people have
multiple convictions, including use (or possession) of a rearm during a drug
transaction. So although today’s drive to legalize marijuana and other
previously illicit substances may lead to fewer imprisoned persons in the
future, the last century’s War on Drugs goes a long way 5 6 1/26/25, 4:40 PM
The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now? https://prod.reader-
ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 5/15 toward explaining the historical
growth in correctional populations even while the rate of “serious crime” in
the United States was declining. 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where
Do We Go Now?
https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 6/15 EXHIBIT 1–2 U.S. Drug Arrests,
1980–2020. Page 6 Source: Bureau of Justice Statistics. 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The
Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now? https://prod.reader-
ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 7/15 Third, parole authorities became
increasingly reluctant to release people on parole for fear of the civil liability
that they could face should those people commit new crimes. This
contributed to a further expansion of prison populations. Fourth, as some
observers have noted, the corrections boom created its own growth dynamic.
As ever increasing numbers of people were placed on probation, the
likelihood of probation violations increased. Prison sentences for more and
more violators resulted in larger prison populations. When people who have
been in prison are released, they swell the numbers of those on parole,
leading to a larger number of parole violations, which in turn can still fuel
further prison growth. Statistics show that the number of persons convicted
of violating the criminal law and then sent to prison for at least the second
time has increased steadily, accounting for approximately 35 percent of the
total number of admissions. One analysis of the dramatic increase in
imprisonment, found that it “was not driven by a centralized national-level
strategy for dealing with crime and was not based on a coherent body of
empirical knowledge demonstrating that prisons improved public safety.”
Instead, said the report, “it was the product of layers of legislative decisions,
primarily enacted at the state level, to charge and imprison more oenders,
increase sentences, limit prison releases, and expand” prison capacity. These
decisions led to a new era in which prisons became primary weapons in what
was then seen as the nation’s war on drugs and on crime. 7 8 1/26/25, 4:40
PM The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now? https://prod.reader-
ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 8/15 U.S. correctional populations
have grown dramatically over the past 40 years, as this image of
incarcerated persons living in a modified gymnasium at the Mule Creek State
Prison in Ione, California, illustrates. What factors led to a substantial
increase in the use of imprisonment in this country beginning in the 1980s?
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do
We Go Now?
https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 9/15 Turning the Corner in U.S. Prison
Populations While get-tough-on-crime attitudes continue to persist among
signicant segments of American society today, they have largely been
trumped by economic realities. State budgets have been hard pressed to
continue funding prison expansion, and the number of people behind bars
began to show a slow decline beginning around 2010. Alternatives to
imprisonment, most of which will be discussed in coming chapters, are many
and include probation, nes, and community service—to which people who
have been convicted are being sentenced in increasing numbers. In order to
reduce correctional expenditures even further, some states are using forms
of early release from prison, shortening time served, reducing the period of
probation or parole supervision, and shifting the responsibility of supervising
people who have been convicted to county-level governments (and away
from state responsibility). We will examine these innovations at various
places throughout this text. As states grappled with the economic realities of
reduced revenues and constrained budgets beginning in the early 2000s, it
became increasingly important to get the most “bang for the buck,” so to
speak, out of correctional programs. The realization that imprisonment had
become too expensive, combined with a number of other factors, led to a
decline in prison populations. Other reasons for the decline include: 1.
Criminal justice reform policies—Many states have enacted policies aimed at
reducing the use of imprisonment and promoting alternatives to
incarceration, such as drug courts and community supervision programs. 2. A
decrease in crime rates—In recent years, crime rates in the United States
have generally been declining (contrary to what the popular media might
depict), which has contributed to a reduction in the number of people being
sentenced to prison. 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do We Go
Now? https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 10/15 Page 7 In her incoming
presidential address to the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences, Melissa
Hickman Barlow outlined a plan for the implementation of sustainable
justice. Barlow dened sustainable justice as “criminal laws and criminal
justice institutions, policies, and practices that achieve justice in the present
without compromising the ability of future generations to have the benets of
a just society.” Barlow’s call for aordable justice, based on principles and
operating practices that can be carried into the future without bankrupting
generations yet to come, represents an important turning point in our
nation’s approach to corrections and other justice institutions. These and
other factors have contributed to a reduction in the number of people being
incarcerated in the United States and a growing recognition of the need to
adopt evidence-based policies. As we will see in the next chapter, the
evidencebased movement in corrections seeks to evaluate programs and
services to see which are the most eective relative to their costs. Evidence-
based practices play an important role in correctional administration today—
and should contribute much to the call for sustainable justice and continue to
contribute to a decline in the use of imprisonment. 3. Reforms to sentencing
laws—Some states have passed laws to reduce mandatory minimum
sentences and provide greater discretion to judges in imposing sentences,
which has, in turn, led to fewer people being sentenced to long prison terms.
4. Decarceration initiatives—In response to overcrowding, budget
constraints, and public pressure, some states have implemented initiatives
to safely reduce their prison populations, such as early release programs and
parole reforms. 5. Changes in drug enforcement policies—Some states have
adopted reforms to their drug enforcement policies, such as reducing
sentences for drug oenses and expanding access to treatment, all of which
have reduced the number of people incarcerated for drug-related crimes. 9
1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now?
https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 11/15 Correctional Employment As
correctional populations peaked, increasing budgets led to a dramatically
expanding correctional workforce and enhanced employment opportunities
within the eld. Much of that momentum continues into the present day. In
2023, for example, the North Carolina Department of Public Safety oered a
$7,000 hiring bonus for new correctional ocers (COs), and the Tennessee
Department of Corrections provided a $5,000 bonus to newly hired ocers. At
the same time, the Nebraska Department of Correctional Services provided a
bonus of $15,000 for experienced COs (i.e., for those at the rank of corporal
or higher) who were willing to work at the Nebraska State Penitentiary and
other select facilities. According to historical reports, persons employed in
the corrections eld totaled approximately 27,000 in 1950. By 1975, the
number had risen to about 75,000. Estimates published by the Bureau of
Labor Statistics (BLS) in 2021 show that over 400,000 government
employees throughout the United States worked in corrections, with a total
monthly payroll of around $3 billion. BLS also found that the average hourly
and annual wage for COs and jailers was $25.69 and $53,420, respectively.
Of course, supervisors and those at higher rank earned more than the
average. Similarly, those who begin work with college degrees are paid
more. Exhibit 1–3 shows some of the employment possibilities in corrections.
Page 8 10 11 12 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now?
https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 12/15 EXHIBIT 1–3 Careers in
Corrections 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now?
https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 13/15 Prisons mean jobs and can
contribute greatly to the health of local economies. Some economically
disadvantaged towns—from Tupper Lake, in the Adirondack Mountains of
upstate New York, to Edgeeld, South Carolina—recently cashed in on the
corrections industry, having successfully competed to become sites for new
prisons. Although prison populations have recently fallen, a number of states
are building new prisons to replace failing prison infrastructure with safer,
more secure facilities that accommodate the rehabilitation of incarcerated
people. In 2021, for example, the state of Alabama announced the planned
construction of two new correctional facilities to be built on state-owned
land. The two new facilities, each designed to hold 4,000 persons in
connement will cost approximately $700 million to build and will contribute
about $30 million a year to the local economy. Academic teacher Activity
therapy administrator Business manager Case manager Chaplain Chemical
dependency manager Children’s services counselor Classication ocer Clinical
social worker Correctional ocer Dietary ocer Drug court coordinator Field
administrator Fugitive apprehension ocer Human services counselor Job
placement ocer Mental health clinician Parole caseworker Parole ocer
Presentence investigator Probation ocer Program ocer Program specialist
Programmer/analyst Psychologist Recreation coordinator Social worker
Statistician Substance abuse counselor Unit leader Victim advocate
Vocational instructor Warden/superintendent Youth services coordinator
Youth supervisor 13 14 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do We
Go Now? https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-
uuid-3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 14/15 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The
Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now? https://prod.reader-
ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 15/15
CO1-1 THE CARCERAL STATE: WHERE DO WE GO NOW? One amazing fact
stands out from all the contemporary information about American
corrections: While serious crime in the United States consistently declined
throughout much of the 1990s, and while such declines continued into the
rst two decades of the 21st century, the number of people under correctional
supervision in this country—not just the number of people who have been
convicted and sent to prison—started to skyrocket during the 1980s, and
only began to drop after 2010. Crime rates are approximately 20 percent
lower today than they were in 1980. In fact, they are near their lowest level
in 35 years. But the number of people under correctional supervision
increased almost 300% between 1980 and 2010— when it nally started to
decline. During that period, the federal prison population went from 11
incarcerated persons for every 100,000 U.S. residents to 68. Annual
spending on the federal prison system rose 600 percent, from $970 million to
more than $6.7 billion in ination-adjusted dollars. States, like the federal
government, recorded sharp increases in incarceration and corrections costs
over the three 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now?
https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 1/15 decades from 1980 to 2010.
Numbers like these show that the era of mass incarceration, created a
widescale reliance on the use of imprisonment to address the nation’s
problems. By the turn of the 21st century, the provision of correctional
services of all kinds had become a major strain on government budgets at all
levels. Page 4 Today, progress is being made in bringing imprisonment rates
down. By 2020, the imprisonment rate at the federal level had fallen to 43
persons out of every 100,000 U.S. residents—and it continues to decline. In
just one year (between 2019 and 2020), federal prisons showed a 40%
decrease in new admissions. State prisons showed similar declines, with the
largest percentage declines in admissions in California, which had 66% fewer
admissions in 2020 than in 2019, and in New York where admissions to
prison decreased by 60%. Although some of the decline in prison admissions
was the result of new government policies, the bulk of it was due to the fact
that courts across the country altered their operations during the COVID
epidemic, leading to delays in trials and the sentencing of persons. Alongside
fewer admissions, there have also been increases in the number of persons
released from prison, but when viewed historically American prison
populations continue to be extraordinarily high ( Exhibit 1-1). Critics of
today’s continued high rates of imprisonment sometimes refer to our country
as a carceral state. The term carceral state implies that government power is
being used to incapacitate, incarcerate, detain, or otherwise limit the
physical freedom of vast numbers of people, extending far beyond that
necessary to ensure a safe and just society. Of course, the words “safe” and
“just” are critical and reveal that social justice concerns need to be balanced
with public safety in determining appropriate levels of incapacitation not only
in the United States but in any society. Those who support the widespread
use of incarceration argue that public safety can be assured only through
incapacitation of those who are dangerous. But “dangerousness” can be a
slippery concept when applied to social activity that may 3 1/26/25, 4:40 PM
The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now? https://prod.reader-
ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 2/15 not physically harm others
directly—as when those who use (or even trac in) illicit drugs are arrested
and prosecuted. Nora Krinitsky, Director of the Carceral State Project at the
University of Michigan, says, “The term carceral state often calls to mind
institutions of connement like jails, detention centers, prisons, but … it also
comprises a wide range of policies, practices, and institutions that scrutinize
individuals and communities both before and after their contact with the
criminal justice system.” We might also add that, in a true carceral state, the
justice system employs millions of men and women who directly depend
upon high rates of imprisonment and detention to earn a living. 4 1/26/25,
4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now? https://prod.reader-
ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 3/15 EXHIBIT 1–1 The Growth of
Imprisonment in the United States Page 5 Source: Bureau of Justice Statistics
1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now?
https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 4/15 The question that needs to be
answered is, “Why?” Why did the American correctional population increase
so dramatically in recent decades even in the face of declining crime rates?
And why is the United States still in the midst of an era of mass
incarceration? The answer to these questions, like the answers to most
societal enigmas, is far from simple, and it has a number of dimensions. We
identify four such dimensions in the material that follows. First, it is
important to recognize that get-tough-on-crime laws, such as the
threestrikes (and two-strikes) laws that were enacted in many states during
the mid1990s, fueled rapid increases in prison populations. The conservative
attitudes that gave birth to those laws are still largely with us, and much of
the increase in state prison populations has come from imprisoning more
people for violent crimes for longer periods of time. At the federal level, the
Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 encouraged longer
prison sentences for more crimes and led to the adoption of harsher
sentencing regimes throughout the nation. A second reason that correctional
populations increased rapidly during the 1990s and the decade that followed
can be found in the Twentieth Century’s War on Drugs. The War on Drugs led
to the arrest and conviction of many people, resulting in larger correctional
populations in nearly every jurisdiction (especially within the federal
correctional system). The congressional Colson Task Force on Federal
Corrections, which issued its report ten years ago, found that “The biggest
driver of growth” in the federal prison population was “federally sentenced
drug oenders, almost all of whom were convicted of drug tracking” (see
Exhibit 1–2 for drug arrests, and compare it with Exhibit 1–1 to see the
impact of drug arrests on prison populations). Many drug arrestees—
especially trackers—are sentenced to lengthy prison terms, further
increasing the number of people in prison, and many such people have
multiple convictions, including use (or possession) of a rearm during a drug
transaction. So although today’s drive to legalize marijuana and other
previously illicit substances may lead to fewer imprisoned persons in the
future, the last century’s War on Drugs goes a long way 5 6 1/26/25, 4:40 PM
The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now? https://prod.reader-
ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 5/15 toward explaining the historical
growth in correctional populations even while the rate of “serious crime” in
the United States was declining. 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where
Do We Go Now?
https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 6/15 EXHIBIT 1–2 U.S. Drug Arrests,
1980–2020. Page 6 Source: Bureau of Justice Statistics. 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The
Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now? https://prod.reader-
ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 7/15 Third, parole authorities became
increasingly reluctant to release people on parole for fear of the civil liability
that they could face should those people commit new crimes. This
contributed to a further expansion of prison populations. Fourth, as some
observers have noted, the corrections boom created its own growth dynamic.
As ever increasing numbers of people were placed on probation, the
likelihood of probation violations increased. Prison sentences for more and
more violators resulted in larger prison populations. When people who have
been in prison are released, they swell the numbers of those on parole,
leading to a larger number of parole violations, which in turn can still fuel
further prison growth. Statistics show that the number of persons convicted
of violating the criminal law and then sent to prison for at least the second
time has increased steadily, accounting for approximately 35 percent of the
total number of admissions. One analysis of the dramatic increase in
imprisonment, found that it “was not driven by a centralized national-level
strategy for dealing with crime and was not based on a coherent body of
empirical knowledge demonstrating that prisons improved public safety.”
Instead, said the report, “it was the product of layers of legislative decisions,
primarily enacted at the state level, to charge and imprison more oenders,
increase sentences, limit prison releases, and expand” prison capacity. These
decisions led to a new era in which prisons became primary weapons in what
was then seen as the nation’s war on drugs and on crime. 7 8 1/26/25, 4:40
PM The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now? https://prod.reader-
ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 8/15 U.S. correctional populations
have grown dramatically over the past 40 years, as this image of
incarcerated persons living in a modified gymnasium at the Mule Creek State
Prison in Ione, California, illustrates. What factors led to a substantial
increase in the use of imprisonment in this country beginning in the 1980s?
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do
We Go Now?
https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 9/15 Turning the Corner in U.S. Prison
Populations While get-tough-on-crime attitudes continue to persist among
signicant segments of American society today, they have largely been
trumped by economic realities. State budgets have been hard pressed to
continue funding prison expansion, and the number of people behind bars
began to show a slow decline beginning around 2010. Alternatives to
imprisonment, most of which will be discussed in coming chapters, are many
and include probation, nes, and community service—to which people who
have been convicted are being sentenced in increasing numbers. In order to
reduce correctional expenditures even further, some states are using forms
of early release from prison, shortening time served, reducing the period of
probation or parole supervision, and shifting the responsibility of supervising
people who have been convicted to county-level governments (and away
from state responsibility). We will examine these innovations at various
places throughout this text. As states grappled with the economic realities of
reduced revenues and constrained budgets beginning in the early 2000s, it
became increasingly important to get the most “bang for the buck,” so to
speak, out of correctional programs. The realization that imprisonment had
become too expensive, combined with a number of other factors, led to a
decline in prison populations. Other reasons for the decline include: 1.
Criminal justice reform policies—Many states have enacted policies aimed at
reducing the use of imprisonment and promoting alternatives to
incarceration, such as drug courts and community supervision programs. 2. A
decrease in crime rates—In recent years, crime rates in the United States
have generally been declining (contrary to what the popular media might
depict), which has contributed to a reduction in the number of people being
sentenced to prison. 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do We Go
Now? https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 10/15 Page 7 In her incoming
presidential address to the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences, Melissa
Hickman Barlow outlined a plan for the implementation of sustainable
justice. Barlow dened sustainable justice as “criminal laws and criminal
justice institutions, policies, and practices that achieve justice in the present
without compromising the ability of future generations to have the benets of
a just society.” Barlow’s call for aordable justice, based on principles and
operating practices that can be carried into the future without bankrupting
generations yet to come, represents an important turning point in our
nation’s approach to corrections and other justice institutions. These and
other factors have contributed to a reduction in the number of people being
incarcerated in the United States and a growing recognition of the need to
adopt evidence-based policies. As we will see in the next chapter, the
evidencebased movement in corrections seeks to evaluate programs and
services to see which are the most eective relative to their costs. Evidence-
based practices play an important role in correctional administration today—
and should contribute much to the call for sustainable justice and continue to
contribute to a decline in the use of imprisonment. 3. Reforms to sentencing
laws—Some states have passed laws to reduce mandatory minimum
sentences and provide greater discretion to judges in imposing sentences,
which has, in turn, led to fewer people being sentenced to long prison terms.
4. Decarceration initiatives—In response to overcrowding, budget
constraints, and public pressure, some states have implemented initiatives
to safely reduce their prison populations, such as early release programs and
parole reforms. 5. Changes in drug enforcement policies—Some states have
adopted reforms to their drug enforcement policies, such as reducing
sentences for drug oenses and expanding access to treatment, all of which
have reduced the number of people incarcerated for drug-related crimes. 9
1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now?
https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 11/15 Correctional Employment As
correctional populations peaked, increasing budgets led to a dramatically
expanding correctional workforce and enhanced employment opportunities
within the eld. Much of that momentum continues into the present day. In
2023, for example, the North Carolina Department of Public Safety oered a
$7,000 hiring bonus for new correctional ocers (COs), and the Tennessee
Department of Corrections provided a $5,000 bonus to newly hired ocers. At
the same time, the Nebraska Department of Correctional Services provided a
bonus of $15,000 for experienced COs (i.e., for those at the rank of corporal
or higher) who were willing to work at the Nebraska State Penitentiary and
other select facilities. According to historical reports, persons employed in
the corrections eld totaled approximately 27,000 in 1950. By 1975, the
number had risen to about 75,000. Estimates published by the Bureau of
Labor Statistics (BLS) in 2021 show that over 400,000 government
employees throughout the United States worked in corrections, with a total
monthly payroll of around $3 billion. BLS also found that the average hourly
and annual wage for COs and jailers was $25.69 and $53,420, respectively.
Of course, supervisors and those at higher rank earned more than the
average. Similarly, those who begin work with college degrees are paid
more. Exhibit 1–3 shows some of the employment possibilities in corrections.
Page 8 10 11 12 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now?
https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 12/15 EXHIBIT 1–3 Careers in
Corrections 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now?
https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 13/15 Prisons mean jobs and can
contribute greatly to the health of local economies. Some economically
disadvantaged towns—from Tupper Lake, in the Adirondack Mountains of
upstate New York, to Edgeeld, South Carolina—recently cashed in on the
corrections industry, having successfully competed to become sites for new
prisons. Although prison populations have recently fallen, a number of states
are building new prisons to replace failing prison infrastructure with safer,
more secure facilities that accommodate the rehabilitation of incarcerated
people. In 2021, for example, the state of Alabama announced the planned
construction of two new correctional facilities to be built on state-owned
land. The two new facilities, each designed to hold 4,000 persons in
connement will cost approximately $700 million to build and will contribute
about $30 million a year to the local economy. Academic teacher Activity
therapy administrator Business manager Case manager Chaplain Chemical
dependency manager Children’s services counselor Classication ocer Clinical
social worker Correctional ocer Dietary ocer Drug court coordinator Field
administrator Fugitive apprehension ocer Human services counselor Job
placement ocer Mental health clinician Parole caseworker Parole ocer
Presentence investigator Probation ocer Program ocer Program specialist
Programmer/analyst Psychologist Recreation coordinator Social worker
Statistician Substance abuse counselor Unit leader Victim advocate
Vocational instructor Warden/superintendent Youth services coordinator
Youth supervisor 13 14 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do We
Go Now? https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-
uuid-3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 14/15 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The
Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now? https://prod.reader-
ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 15/15
CO1-1 THE CARCERAL STATE: WHERE DO WE GO NOW? One amazing fact
stands out from all the contemporary information about American
corrections: While serious crime in the United States consistently declined
throughout much of the 1990s, and while such declines continued into the
rst two decades of the 21st century, the number of people under correctional
supervision in this country—not just the number of people who have been
convicted and sent to prison—started to skyrocket during the 1980s, and
only began to drop after 2010. Crime rates are approximately 20 percent
lower today than they were in 1980. In fact, they are near their lowest level
in 35 years. But the number of people under correctional supervision
increased almost 300% between 1980 and 2010— when it nally started to
decline. During that period, the federal prison population went from 11
incarcerated persons for every 100,000 U.S. residents to 68. Annual
spending on the federal prison system rose 600 percent, from $970 million to
more than $6.7 billion in ination-adjusted dollars. States, like the federal
government, recorded sharp increases in incarceration and corrections costs
over the three 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now?
https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 1/15 decades from 1980 to 2010.
Numbers like these show that the era of mass incarceration, created a
widescale reliance on the use of imprisonment to address the nation’s
problems. By the turn of the 21st century, the provision of correctional
services of all kinds had become a major strain on government budgets at all
levels. Page 4 Today, progress is being made in bringing imprisonment rates
down. By 2020, the imprisonment rate at the federal level had fallen to 43
persons out of every 100,000 U.S. residents—and it continues to decline. In
just one year (between 2019 and 2020), federal prisons showed a 40%
decrease in new admissions. State prisons showed similar declines, with the
largest percentage declines in admissions in California, which had 66% fewer
admissions in 2020 than in 2019, and in New York where admissions to
prison decreased by 60%. Although some of the decline in prison admissions
was the result of new government policies, the bulk of it was due to the fact
that courts across the country altered their operations during the COVID
epidemic, leading to delays in trials and the sentencing of persons. Alongside
fewer admissions, there have also been increases in the number of persons
released from prison, but when viewed historically American prison
populations continue to be extraordinarily high ( Exhibit 1-1). Critics of
today’s continued high rates of imprisonment sometimes refer to our country
as a carceral state. The term carceral state implies that government power is
being used to incapacitate, incarcerate, detain, or otherwise limit the
physical freedom of vast numbers of people, extending far beyond that
necessary to ensure a safe and just society. Of course, the words “safe” and
“just” are critical and reveal that social justice concerns need to be balanced
with public safety in determining appropriate levels of incapacitation not only
in the United States but in any society. Those who support the widespread
use of incarceration argue that public safety can be assured only through
incapacitation of those who are dangerous. But “dangerousness” can be a
slippery concept when applied to social activity that may 3 1/26/25, 4:40 PM
The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now? https://prod.reader-
ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 2/15 not physically harm others
directly—as when those who use (or even trac in) illicit drugs are arrested
and prosecuted. Nora Krinitsky, Director of the Carceral State Project at the
University of Michigan, says, “The term carceral state often calls to mind
institutions of connement like jails, detention centers, prisons, but … it also
comprises a wide range of policies, practices, and institutions that scrutinize
individuals and communities both before and after their contact with the
criminal justice system.” We might also add that, in a true carceral state, the
justice system employs millions of men and women who directly depend
upon high rates of imprisonment and detention to earn a living. 4 1/26/25,
4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now? https://prod.reader-
ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 3/15 EXHIBIT 1–1 The Growth of
Imprisonment in the United States Page 5 Source: Bureau of Justice Statistics
1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now?
https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 4/15 The question that needs to be
answered is, “Why?” Why did the American correctional population increase
so dramatically in recent decades even in the face of declining crime rates?
And why is the United States still in the midst of an era of mass
incarceration? The answer to these questions, like the answers to most
societal enigmas, is far from simple, and it has a number of dimensions. We
identify four such dimensions in the material that follows. First, it is
important to recognize that get-tough-on-crime laws, such as the
threestrikes (and two-strikes) laws that were enacted in many states during
the mid1990s, fueled rapid increases in prison populations. The conservative
attitudes that gave birth to those laws are still largely with us, and much of
the increase in state prison populations has come from imprisoning more
people for violent crimes for longer periods of time. At the federal level, the
Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 encouraged longer
prison sentences for more crimes and led to the adoption of harsher
sentencing regimes throughout the nation. A second reason that correctional
populations increased rapidly during the 1990s and the decade that followed
can be found in the Twentieth Century’s War on Drugs. The War on Drugs led
to the arrest and conviction of many people, resulting in larger correctional
populations in nearly every jurisdiction (especially within the federal
correctional system). The congressional Colson Task Force on Federal
Corrections, which issued its report ten years ago, found that “The biggest
driver of growth” in the federal prison population was “federally sentenced
drug oenders, almost all of whom were convicted of drug tracking” (see
Exhibit 1–2 for drug arrests, and compare it with Exhibit 1–1 to see the
impact of drug arrests on prison populations). Many drug arrestees—
especially trackers—are sentenced to lengthy prison terms, further
increasing the number of people in prison, and many such people have
multiple convictions, including use (or possession) of a rearm during a drug
transaction. So although today’s drive to legalize marijuana and other
previously illicit substances may lead to fewer imprisoned persons in the
future, the last century’s War on Drugs goes a long way 5 6 1/26/25, 4:40 PM
The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now? https://prod.reader-
ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 5/15 toward explaining the historical
growth in correctional populations even while the rate of “serious crime” in
the United States was declining. 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where
Do We Go Now?
https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 6/15 EXHIBIT 1–2 U.S. Drug Arrests,
1980–2020. Page 6 Source: Bureau of Justice Statistics. 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The
Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now? https://prod.reader-
ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 7/15 Third, parole authorities became
increasingly reluctant to release people on parole for fear of the civil liability
that they could face should those people commit new crimes. This
contributed to a further expansion of prison populations. Fourth, as some
observers have noted, the corrections boom created its own growth dynamic.
As ever increasing numbers of people were placed on probation, the
likelihood of probation violations increased. Prison sentences for more and
more violators resulted in larger prison populations. When people who have
been in prison are released, they swell the numbers of those on parole,
leading to a larger number of parole violations, which in turn can still fuel
further prison growth. Statistics show that the number of persons convicted
of violating the criminal law and then sent to prison for at least the second
time has increased steadily, accounting for approximately 35 percent of the
total number of admissions. One analysis of the dramatic increase in
imprisonment, found that it “was not driven by a centralized national-level
strategy for dealing with crime and was not based on a coherent body of
empirical knowledge demonstrating that prisons improved public safety.”
Instead, said the report, “it was the product of layers of legislative decisions,
primarily enacted at the state level, to charge and imprison more oenders,
increase sentences, limit prison releases, and expand” prison capacity. These
decisions led to a new era in which prisons became primary weapons in what
was then seen as the nation’s war on drugs and on crime. 7 8 1/26/25, 4:40
PM The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now? https://prod.reader-
ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 8/15 U.S. correctional populations
have grown dramatically over the past 40 years, as this image of
incarcerated persons living in a modified gymnasium at the Mule Creek State
Prison in Ione, California, illustrates. What factors led to a substantial
increase in the use of imprisonment in this country beginning in the 1980s?
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do
We Go Now?
https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 9/15 Turning the Corner in U.S. Prison
Populations While get-tough-on-crime attitudes continue to persist among
signicant segments of American society today, they have largely been
trumped by economic realities. State budgets have been hard pressed to
continue funding prison expansion, and the number of people behind bars
began to show a slow decline beginning around 2010. Alternatives to
imprisonment, most of which will be discussed in coming chapters, are many
and include probation, nes, and community service—to which people who
have been convicted are being sentenced in increasing numbers. In order to
reduce correctional expenditures even further, some states are using forms
of early release from prison, shortening time served, reducing the period of
probation or parole supervision, and shifting the responsibility of supervising
people who have been convicted to county-level governments (and away
from state responsibility). We will examine these innovations at various
places throughout this text. As states grappled with the economic realities of
reduced revenues and constrained budgets beginning in the early 2000s, it
became increasingly important to get the most “bang for the buck,” so to
speak, out of correctional programs. The realization that imprisonment had
become too expensive, combined with a number of other factors, led to a
decline in prison populations. Other reasons for the decline include: 1.
Criminal justice reform policies—Many states have enacted policies aimed at
reducing the use of imprisonment and promoting alternatives to
incarceration, such as drug courts and community supervision programs. 2. A
decrease in crime rates—In recent years, crime rates in the United States
have generally been declining (contrary to what the popular media might
depict), which has contributed to a reduction in the number of people being
sentenced to prison. 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do We Go
Now? https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 10/15 Page 7 In her incoming
presidential address to the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences, Melissa
Hickman Barlow outlined a plan for the implementation of sustainable
justice. Barlow dened sustainable justice as “criminal laws and criminal
justice institutions, policies, and practices that achieve justice in the present
without compromising the ability of future generations to have the benets of
a just society.” Barlow’s call for aordable justice, based on principles and
operating practices that can be carried into the future without bankrupting
generations yet to come, represents an important turning point in our
nation’s approach to corrections and other justice institutions. These and
other factors have contributed to a reduction in the number of people being
incarcerated in the United States and a growing recognition of the need to
adopt evidence-based policies. As we will see in the next chapter, the
evidencebased movement in corrections seeks to evaluate programs and
services to see which are the most eective relative to their costs. Evidence-
based practices play an important role in correctional administration today—
and should contribute much to the call for sustainable justice and continue to
contribute to a decline in the use of imprisonment. 3. Reforms to sentencing
laws—Some states have passed laws to reduce mandatory minimum
sentences and provide greater discretion to judges in imposing sentences,
which has, in turn, led to fewer people being sentenced to long prison terms.
4. Decarceration initiatives—In response to overcrowding, budget
constraints, and public pressure, some states have implemented initiatives
to safely reduce their prison populations, such as early release programs and
parole reforms. 5. Changes in drug enforcement policies—Some states have
adopted reforms to their drug enforcement policies, such as reducing
sentences for drug oenses and expanding access to treatment, all of which
have reduced the number of people incarcerated for drug-related crimes. 9
1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now?
https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 11/15 Correctional Employment As
correctional populations peaked, increasing budgets led to a dramatically
expanding correctional workforce and enhanced employment opportunities
within the eld. Much of that momentum continues into the present day. In
2023, for example, the North Carolina Department of Public Safety oered a
$7,000 hiring bonus for new correctional ocers (COs), and the Tennessee
Department of Corrections provided a $5,000 bonus to newly hired ocers. At
the same time, the Nebraska Department of Correctional Services provided a
bonus of $15,000 for experienced COs (i.e., for those at the rank of corporal
or higher) who were willing to work at the Nebraska State Penitentiary and
other select facilities. According to historical reports, persons employed in
the corrections eld totaled approximately 27,000 in 1950. By 1975, the
number had risen to about 75,000. Estimates published by the Bureau of
Labor Statistics (BLS) in 2021 show that over 400,000 government
employees throughout the United States worked in corrections, with a total
monthly payroll of around $3 billion. BLS also found that the average hourly
and annual wage for COs and jailers was $25.69 and $53,420, respectively.
Of course, supervisors and those at higher rank earned more than the
average. Similarly, those who begin work with college degrees are paid
more. Exhibit 1–3 shows some of the employment possibilities in corrections.
Page 8 10 11 12 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now?
https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 12/15 EXHIBIT 1–3 Careers in
Corrections 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now?
https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 13/15 Prisons mean jobs and can
contribute greatly to the health of local economies. Some economically
disadvantaged towns—from Tupper Lake, in the Adirondack Mountains of
upstate New York, to Edgeeld, South Carolina—recently cashed in on the
corrections industry, having successfully competed to become sites for new
prisons. Although prison populations have recently fallen, a number of states
are building new prisons to replace failing prison infrastructure with safer,
more secure facilities that accommodate the rehabilitation of incarcerated
people. In 2021, for example, the state of Alabama announced the planned
construction of two new correctional facilities to be built on state-owned
land. The two new facilities, each designed to hold 4,000 persons in
connement will cost approximately $700 million to build and will contribute
about $30 million a year to the local economy. Academic teacher Activity
therapy administrator Business manager Case manager Chaplain Chemical
dependency manager Children’s services counselor Classication ocer Clinical
social worker Correctional ocer Dietary ocer Drug court coordinator Field
administrator Fugitive apprehension ocer Human services counselor Job
placement ocer Mental health clinician Parole caseworker Parole ocer
Presentence investigator Probation ocer Program ocer Program specialist
Programmer/analyst Psychologist Recreation coordinator Social worker
Statistician Substance abuse counselor Unit leader Victim advocate
Vocational instructor Warden/superintendent Youth services coordinator
Youth supervisor 13 14 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do We
Go Now? https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-
uuid-3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 14/15 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The
Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now? https://prod.reader-
ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 15/15
CO1-1 THE CARCERAL STATE: WHERE DO WE GO NOW? One amazing fact
stands out from all the contemporary information about American
corrections: While serious crime in the United States consistently declined
throughout much of the 1990s, and while such declines continued into the
rst two decades of the 21st century, the number of people under correctional
supervision in this country—not just the number of people who have been
convicted and sent to prison—started to skyrocket during the 1980s, and
only began to drop after 2010. Crime rates are approximately 20 percent
lower today than they were in 1980. In fact, they are near their lowest level
in 35 years. But the number of people under correctional supervision
increased almost 300% between 1980 and 2010— when it nally started to
decline. During that period, the federal prison population went from 11
incarcerated persons for every 100,000 U.S. residents to 68. Annual
spending on the federal prison system rose 600 percent, from $970 million to
more than $6.7 billion in ination-adjusted dollars. States, like the federal
government, recorded sharp increases in incarceration and corrections costs
over the three 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now?
https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 1/15 decades from 1980 to 2010.
Numbers like these show that the era of mass incarceration, created a
widescale reliance on the use of imprisonment to address the nation’s
problems. By the turn of the 21st century, the provision of correctional
services of all kinds had become a major strain on government budgets at all
levels. Page 4 Today, progress is being made in bringing imprisonment rates
down. By 2020, the imprisonment rate at the federal level had fallen to 43
persons out of every 100,000 U.S. residents—and it continues to decline. In
just one year (between 2019 and 2020), federal prisons showed a 40%
decrease in new admissions. State prisons showed similar declines, with the
largest percentage declines in admissions in California, which had 66% fewer
admissions in 2020 than in 2019, and in New York where admissions to
prison decreased by 60%. Although some of the decline in prison admissions
was the result of new government policies, the bulk of it was due to the fact
that courts across the country altered their operations during the COVID
epidemic, leading to delays in trials and the sentencing of persons. Alongside
fewer admissions, there have also been increases in the number of persons
released from prison, but when viewed historically American prison
populations continue to be extraordinarily high ( Exhibit 1-1). Critics of
today’s continued high rates of imprisonment sometimes refer to our country
as a carceral state. The term carceral state implies that government power is
being used to incapacitate, incarcerate, detain, or otherwise limit the
physical freedom of vast numbers of people, extending far beyond that
necessary to ensure a safe and just society. Of course, the words “safe” and
“just” are critical and reveal that social justice concerns need to be balanced
with public safety in determining appropriate levels of incapacitation not only
in the United States but in any society. Those who support the widespread
use of incarceration argue that public safety can be assured only through
incapacitation of those who are dangerous. But “dangerousness” can be a
slippery concept when applied to social activity that may 3 1/26/25, 4:40 PM
The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now? https://prod.reader-
ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 2/15 not physically harm others
directly—as when those who use (or even trac in) illicit drugs are arrested
and prosecuted. Nora Krinitsky, Director of the Carceral State Project at the
University of Michigan, says, “The term carceral state often calls to mind
institutions of connement like jails, detention centers, prisons, but … it also
comprises a wide range of policies, practices, and institutions that scrutinize
individuals and communities both before and after their contact with the
criminal justice system.” We might also add that, in a true carceral state, the
justice system employs millions of men and women who directly depend
upon high rates of imprisonment and detention to earn a living. 4 1/26/25,
4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now? https://prod.reader-
ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 3/15 EXHIBIT 1–1 The Growth of
Imprisonment in the United States Page 5 Source: Bureau of Justice Statistics
1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now?
https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 4/15 The question that needs to be
answered is, “Why?” Why did the American correctional population increase
so dramatically in recent decades even in the face of declining crime rates?
And why is the United States still in the midst of an era of mass
incarceration? The answer to these questions, like the answers to most
societal enigmas, is far from simple, and it has a number of dimensions. We
identify four such dimensions in the material that follows. First, it is
important to recognize that get-tough-on-crime laws, such as the
threestrikes (and two-strikes) laws that were enacted in many states during
the mid1990s, fueled rapid increases in prison populations. The conservative
attitudes that gave birth to those laws are still largely with us, and much of
the increase in state prison populations has come from imprisoning more
people for violent crimes for longer periods of time. At the federal level, the
Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 encouraged longer
prison sentences for more crimes and led to the adoption of harsher
sentencing regimes throughout the nation. A second reason that correctional
populations increased rapidly during the 1990s and the decade that followed
can be found in the Twentieth Century’s War on Drugs. The War on Drugs led
to the arrest and conviction of many people, resulting in larger correctional
populations in nearly every jurisdiction (especially within the federal
correctional system). The congressional Colson Task Force on Federal
Corrections, which issued its report ten years ago, found that “The biggest
driver of growth” in the federal prison population was “federally sentenced
drug oenders, almost all of whom were convicted of drug tracking” (see
Exhibit 1–2 for drug arrests, and compare it with Exhibit 1–1 to see the
impact of drug arrests on prison populations). Many drug arrestees—
especially trackers—are sentenced to lengthy prison terms, further
increasing the number of people in prison, and many such people have
multiple convictions, including use (or possession) of a rearm during a drug
transaction. So although today’s drive to legalize marijuana and other
previously illicit substances may lead to fewer imprisoned persons in the
future, the last century’s War on Drugs goes a long way 5 6 1/26/25, 4:40 PM
The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now? https://prod.reader-
ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 5/15 toward explaining the historical
growth in correctional populations even while the rate of “serious crime” in
the United States was declining. 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where
Do We Go Now?
https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 6/15 EXHIBIT 1–2 U.S. Drug Arrests,
1980–2020. Page 6 Source: Bureau of Justice Statistics. 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The
Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now? https://prod.reader-
ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 7/15 Third, parole authorities became
increasingly reluctant to release people on parole for fear of the civil liability
that they could face should those people commit new crimes. This
contributed to a further expansion of prison populations. Fourth, as some
observers have noted, the corrections boom created its own growth dynamic.
As ever increasing numbers of people were placed on probation, the
likelihood of probation violations increased. Prison sentences for more and
more violators resulted in larger prison populations. When people who have
been in prison are released, they swell the numbers of those on parole,
leading to a larger number of parole violations, which in turn can still fuel
further prison growth. Statistics show that the number of persons convicted
of violating the criminal law and then sent to prison for at least the second
time has increased steadily, accounting for approximately 35 percent of the
total number of admissions. One analysis of the dramatic increase in
imprisonment, found that it “was not driven by a centralized national-level
strategy for dealing with crime and was not based on a coherent body of
empirical knowledge demonstrating that prisons improved public safety.”
Instead, said the report, “it was the product of layers of legislative decisions,
primarily enacted at the state level, to charge and imprison more oenders,
increase sentences, limit prison releases, and expand” prison capacity. These
decisions led to a new era in which prisons became primary weapons in what
was then seen as the nation’s war on drugs and on crime. 7 8 1/26/25, 4:40
PM The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now? https://prod.reader-
ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 8/15 U.S. correctional populations
have grown dramatically over the past 40 years, as this image of
incarcerated persons living in a modified gymnasium at the Mule Creek State
Prison in Ione, California, illustrates. What factors led to a substantial
increase in the use of imprisonment in this country beginning in the 1980s?
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do
We Go Now?
https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 9/15 Turning the Corner in U.S. Prison
Populations While get-tough-on-crime attitudes continue to persist among
signicant segments of American society today, they have largely been
trumped by economic realities. State budgets have been hard pressed to
continue funding prison expansion, and the number of people behind bars
began to show a slow decline beginning around 2010. Alternatives to
imprisonment, most of which will be discussed in coming chapters, are many
and include probation, nes, and community service—to which people who
have been convicted are being sentenced in increasing numbers. In order to
reduce correctional expenditures even further, some states are using forms
of early release from prison, shortening time served, reducing the period of
probation or parole supervision, and shifting the responsibility of supervising
people who have been convicted to county-level governments (and away
from state responsibility). We will examine these innovations at various
places throughout this text. As states grappled with the economic realities of
reduced revenues and constrained budgets beginning in the early 2000s, it
became increasingly important to get the most “bang for the buck,” so to
speak, out of correctional programs. The realization that imprisonment had
become too expensive, combined with a number of other factors, led to a
decline in prison populations. Other reasons for the decline include: 1.
Criminal justice reform policies—Many states have enacted policies aimed at
reducing the use of imprisonment and promoting alternatives to
incarceration, such as drug courts and community supervision programs. 2. A
decrease in crime rates—In recent years, crime rates in the United States
have generally been declining (contrary to what the popular media might
depict), which has contributed to a reduction in the number of people being
sentenced to prison. 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do We Go
Now? https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 10/15 Page 7 In her incoming
presidential address to the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences, Melissa
Hickman Barlow outlined a plan for the implementation of sustainable
justice. Barlow dened sustainable justice as “criminal laws and criminal
justice institutions, policies, and practices that achieve justice in the present
without compromising the ability of future generations to have the benets of
a just society.” Barlow’s call for aordable justice, based on principles and
operating practices that can be carried into the future without bankrupting
generations yet to come, represents an important turning point in our
nation’s approach to corrections and other justice institutions. These and
other factors have contributed to a reduction in the number of people being
incarcerated in the United States and a growing recognition of the need to
adopt evidence-based policies. As we will see in the next chapter, the
evidencebased movement in corrections seeks to evaluate programs and
services to see which are the most eective relative to their costs. Evidence-
based practices play an important role in correctional administration today—
and should contribute much to the call for sustainable justice and continue to
contribute to a decline in the use of imprisonment. 3. Reforms to sentencing
laws—Some states have passed laws to reduce mandatory minimum
sentences and provide greater discretion to judges in imposing sentences,
which has, in turn, led to fewer people being sentenced to long prison terms.
4. Decarceration initiatives—In response to overcrowding, budget
constraints, and public pressure, some states have implemented initiatives
to safely reduce their prison populations, such as early release programs and
parole reforms. 5. Changes in drug enforcement policies—Some states have
adopted reforms to their drug enforcement policies, such as reducing
sentences for drug oenses and expanding access to treatment, all of which
have reduced the number of people incarcerated for drug-related crimes. 9
1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now?
https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 11/15 Correctional Employment As
correctional populations peaked, increasing budgets led to a dramatically
expanding correctional workforce and enhanced employment opportunities
within the eld. Much of that momentum continues into the present day. In
2023, for example, the North Carolina Department of Public Safety oered a
$7,000 hiring bonus for new correctional ocers (COs), and the Tennessee
Department of Corrections provided a $5,000 bonus to newly hired ocers. At
the same time, the Nebraska Department of Correctional Services provided a
bonus of $15,000 for experienced COs (i.e., for those at the rank of corporal
or higher) who were willing to work at the Nebraska State Penitentiary and
other select facilities. According to historical reports, persons employed in
the corrections eld totaled approximately 27,000 in 1950. By 1975, the
number had risen to about 75,000. Estimates published by the Bureau of
Labor Statistics (BLS) in 2021 show that over 400,000 government
employees throughout the United States worked in corrections, with a total
monthly payroll of around $3 billion. BLS also found that the average hourly
and annual wage for COs and jailers was $25.69 and $53,420, respectively.
Of course, supervisors and those at higher rank earned more than the
average. Similarly, those who begin work with college degrees are paid
more. Exhibit 1–3 shows some of the employment possibilities in corrections.
Page 8 10 11 12 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now?
https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 12/15 EXHIBIT 1–3 Careers in
Corrections 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now?
https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 13/15 Prisons mean jobs and can
contribute greatly to the health of local economies. Some economically
disadvantaged towns—from Tupper Lake, in the Adirondack Mountains of
upstate New York, to Edgeeld, South Carolina—recently cashed in on the
corrections industry, having successfully competed to become sites for new
prisons. Although prison populations have recently fallen, a number of states
are building new prisons to replace failing prison infrastructure with safer,
more secure facilities that accommodate the rehabilitation of incarcerated
people. In 2021, for example, the state of Alabama announced the planned
construction of two new correctional facilities to be built on state-owned
land. The two new facilities, each designed to hold 4,000 persons in
connement will cost approximately $700 million to build and will contribute
about $30 million a year to the local economy. Academic teacher Activity
therapy administrator Business manager Case manager Chaplain Chemical
dependency manager Children’s services counselor Classication ocer Clinical
social worker Correctional ocer Dietary ocer Drug court coordinator Field
administrator Fugitive apprehension ocer Human services counselor Job
placement ocer Mental health clinician Parole caseworker Parole ocer
Presentence investigator Probation ocer Program ocer Program specialist
Programmer/analyst Psychologist Recreation coordinator Social worker
Statistician Substance abuse counselor Unit leader Victim advocate
Vocational instructor Warden/superintendent Youth services coordinator
Youth supervisor 13 14 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do We
Go Now? https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-
uuid-3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 14/15 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The
Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now? https://prod.reader-
ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 15/15
CO1-1 THE CARCERAL STATE: WHERE DO WE GO NOW? One amazing fact
stands out from all the contemporary information about American
corrections: While serious crime in the United States consistently declined
throughout much of the 1990s, and while such declines continued into the
rst two decades of the 21st century, the number of people under correctional
supervision in this country—not just the number of people who have been
convicted and sent to prison—started to skyrocket during the 1980s, and
only began to drop after 2010. Crime rates are approximately 20 percent
lower today than they were in 1980. In fact, they are near their lowest level
in 35 years. But the number of people under correctional supervision
increased almost 300% between 1980 and 2010— when it nally started to
decline. During that period, the federal prison population went from 11
incarcerated persons for every 100,000 U.S. residents to 68. Annual
spending on the federal prison system rose 600 percent, from $970 million to
more than $6.7 billion in ination-adjusted dollars. States, like the federal
government, recorded sharp increases in incarceration and corrections costs
over the three 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now?
https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 1/15 decades from 1980 to 2010.
Numbers like these show that the era of mass incarceration, created a
widescale reliance on the use of imprisonment to address the nation’s
problems. By the turn of the 21st century, the provision of correctional
services of all kinds had become a major strain on government budgets at all
levels. Page 4 Today, progress is being made in bringing imprisonment rates
down. By 2020, the imprisonment rate at the federal level had fallen to 43
persons out of every 100,000 U.S. residents—and it continues to decline. In
just one year (between 2019 and 2020), federal prisons showed a 40%
decrease in new admissions. State prisons showed similar declines, with the
largest percentage declines in admissions in California, which had 66% fewer
admissions in 2020 than in 2019, and in New York where admissions to
prison decreased by 60%. Although some of the decline in prison admissions
was the result of new government policies, the bulk of it was due to the fact
that courts across the country altered their operations during the COVID
epidemic, leading to delays in trials and the sentencing of persons. Alongside
fewer admissions, there have also been increases in the number of persons
released from prison, but when viewed historically American prison
populations continue to be extraordinarily high ( Exhibit 1-1). Critics of
today’s continued high rates of imprisonment sometimes refer to our country
as a carceral state. The term carceral state implies that government power is
being used to incapacitate, incarcerate, detain, or otherwise limit the
physical freedom of vast numbers of people, extending far beyond that
necessary to ensure a safe and just society. Of course, the words “safe” and
“just” are critical and reveal that social justice concerns need to be balanced
with public safety in determining appropriate levels of incapacitation not only
in the United States but in any society. Those who support the widespread
use of incarceration argue that public safety can be assured only through
incapacitation of those who are dangerous. But “dangerousness” can be a
slippery concept when applied to social activity that may 3 1/26/25, 4:40 PM
The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now? https://prod.reader-
ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 2/15 not physically harm others
directly—as when those who use (or even trac in) illicit drugs are arrested
and prosecuted. Nora Krinitsky, Director of the Carceral State Project at the
University of Michigan, says, “The term carceral state often calls to mind
institutions of connement like jails, detention centers, prisons, but … it also
comprises a wide range of policies, practices, and institutions that scrutinize
individuals and communities both before and after their contact with the
criminal justice system.” We might also add that, in a true carceral state, the
justice system employs millions of men and women who directly depend
upon high rates of imprisonment and detention to earn a living. 4 1/26/25,
4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now? https://prod.reader-
ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 3/15 EXHIBIT 1–1 The Growth of
Imprisonment in the United States Page 5 Source: Bureau of Justice Statistics
1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now?
https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 4/15 The question that needs to be
answered is, “Why?” Why did the American correctional population increase
so dramatically in recent decades even in the face of declining crime rates?
And why is the United States still in the midst of an era of mass
incarceration? The answer to these questions, like the answers to most
societal enigmas, is far from simple, and it has a number of dimensions. We
identify four such dimensions in the material that follows. First, it is
important to recognize that get-tough-on-crime laws, such as the
threestrikes (and two-strikes) laws that were enacted in many states during
the mid1990s, fueled rapid increases in prison populations. The conservative
attitudes that gave birth to those laws are still largely with us, and much of
the increase in state prison populations has come from imprisoning more
people for violent crimes for longer periods of time. At the federal level, the
Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 encouraged longer
prison sentences for more crimes and led to the adoption of harsher
sentencing regimes throughout the nation. A second reason that correctional
populations increased rapidly during the 1990s and the decade that followed
can be found in the Twentieth Century’s War on Drugs. The War on Drugs led
to the arrest and conviction of many people, resulting in larger correctional
populations in nearly every jurisdiction (especially within the federal
correctional system). The congressional Colson Task Force on Federal
Corrections, which issued its report ten years ago, found that “The biggest
driver of growth” in the federal prison population was “federally sentenced
drug oenders, almost all of whom were convicted of drug tracking” (see
Exhibit 1–2 for drug arrests, and compare it with Exhibit 1–1 to see the
impact of drug arrests on prison populations). Many drug arrestees—
especially trackers—are sentenced to lengthy prison terms, further
increasing the number of people in prison, and many such people have
multiple convictions, including use (or possession) of a rearm during a drug
transaction. So although today’s drive to legalize marijuana and other
previously illicit substances may lead to fewer imprisoned persons in the
future, the last century’s War on Drugs goes a long way 5 6 1/26/25, 4:40 PM
The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now? https://prod.reader-
ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 5/15 toward explaining the historical
growth in correctional populations even while the rate of “serious crime” in
the United States was declining. 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where
Do We Go Now?
https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 6/15 EXHIBIT 1–2 U.S. Drug Arrests,
1980–2020. Page 6 Source: Bureau of Justice Statistics. 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The
Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now? https://prod.reader-
ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 7/15 Third, parole authorities became
increasingly reluctant to release people on parole for fear of the civil liability
that they could face should those people commit new crimes. This
contributed to a further expansion of prison populations. Fourth, as some
observers have noted, the corrections boom created its own growth dynamic.
As ever increasing numbers of people were placed on probation, the
likelihood of probation violations increased. Prison sentences for more and
more violators resulted in larger prison populations. When people who have
been in prison are released, they swell the numbers of those on parole,
leading to a larger number of parole violations, which in turn can still fuel
further prison growth. Statistics show that the number of persons convicted
of violating the criminal law and then sent to prison for at least the second
time has increased steadily, accounting for approximately 35 percent of the
total number of admissions. One analysis of the dramatic increase in
imprisonment, found that it “was not driven by a centralized national-level
strategy for dealing with crime and was not based on a coherent body of
empirical knowledge demonstrating that prisons improved public safety.”
Instead, said the report, “it was the product of layers of legislative decisions,
primarily enacted at the state level, to charge and imprison more oenders,
increase sentences, limit prison releases, and expand” prison capacity. These
decisions led to a new era in which prisons became primary weapons in what
was then seen as the nation’s war on drugs and on crime. 7 8 1/26/25, 4:40
PM The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now? https://prod.reader-
ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 8/15 U.S. correctional populations
have grown dramatically over the past 40 years, as this image of
incarcerated persons living in a modified gymnasium at the Mule Creek State
Prison in Ione, California, illustrates. What factors led to a substantial
increase in the use of imprisonment in this country beginning in the 1980s?
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do
We Go Now?
https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 9/15 Turning the Corner in U.S. Prison
Populations While get-tough-on-crime attitudes continue to persist among
signicant segments of American society today, they have largely been
trumped by economic realities. State budgets have been hard pressed to
continue funding prison expansion, and the number of people behind bars
began to show a slow decline beginning around 2010. Alternatives to
imprisonment, most of which will be discussed in coming chapters, are many
and include probation, nes, and community service—to which people who
have been convicted are being sentenced in increasing numbers. In order to
reduce correctional expenditures even further, some states are using forms
of early release from prison, shortening time served, reducing the period of
probation or parole supervision, and shifting the responsibility of supervising
people who have been convicted to county-level governments (and away
from state responsibility). We will examine these innovations at various
places throughout this text. As states grappled with the economic realities of
reduced revenues and constrained budgets beginning in the early 2000s, it
became increasingly important to get the most “bang for the buck,” so to
speak, out of correctional programs. The realization that imprisonment had
become too expensive, combined with a number of other factors, led to a
decline in prison populations. Other reasons for the decline include: 1.
Criminal justice reform policies—Many states have enacted policies aimed at
reducing the use of imprisonment and promoting alternatives to
incarceration, such as drug courts and community supervision programs. 2. A
decrease in crime rates—In recent years, crime rates in the United States
have generally been declining (contrary to what the popular media might
depict), which has contributed to a reduction in the number of people being
sentenced to prison. 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do We Go
Now? https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 10/15 Page 7 In her incoming
presidential address to the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences, Melissa
Hickman Barlow outlined a plan for the implementation of sustainable
justice. Barlow dened sustainable justice as “criminal laws and criminal
justice institutions, policies, and practices that achieve justice in the present
without compromising the ability of future generations to have the benets of
a just society.” Barlow’s call for aordable justice, based on principles and
operating practices that can be carried into the future without bankrupting
generations yet to come, represents an important turning point in our
nation’s approach to corrections and other justice institutions. These and
other factors have contributed to a reduction in the number of people being
incarcerated in the United States and a growing recognition of the need to
adopt evidence-based policies. As we will see in the next chapter, the
evidencebased movement in corrections seeks to evaluate programs and
services to see which are the most eective relative to their costs. Evidence-
based practices play an important role in correctional administration today—
and should contribute much to the call for sustainable justice and continue to
contribute to a decline in the use of imprisonment. 3. Reforms to sentencing
laws—Some states have passed laws to reduce mandatory minimum
sentences and provide greater discretion to judges in imposing sentences,
which has, in turn, led to fewer people being sentenced to long prison terms.
4. Decarceration initiatives—In response to overcrowding, budget
constraints, and public pressure, some states have implemented initiatives
to safely reduce their prison populations, such as early release programs and
parole reforms. 5. Changes in drug enforcement policies—Some states have
adopted reforms to their drug enforcement policies, such as reducing
sentences for drug oenses and expanding access to treatment, all of which
have reduced the number of people incarcerated for drug-related crimes. 9
1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now?
https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 11/15 Correctional Employment As
correctional populations peaked, increasing budgets led to a dramatically
expanding correctional workforce and enhanced employment opportunities
within the eld. Much of that momentum continues into the present day. In
2023, for example, the North Carolina Department of Public Safety oered a
$7,000 hiring bonus for new correctional ocers (COs), and the Tennessee
Department of Corrections provided a $5,000 bonus to newly hired ocers. At
the same time, the Nebraska Department of Correctional Services provided a
bonus of $15,000 for experienced COs (i.e., for those at the rank of corporal
or higher) who were willing to work at the Nebraska State Penitentiary and
other select facilities. According to historical reports, persons employed in
the corrections eld totaled approximately 27,000 in 1950. By 1975, the
number had risen to about 75,000. Estimates published by the Bureau of
Labor Statistics (BLS) in 2021 show that over 400,000 government
employees throughout the United States worked in corrections, with a total
monthly payroll of around $3 billion. BLS also found that the average hourly
and annual wage for COs and jailers was $25.69 and $53,420, respectively.
Of course, supervisors and those at higher rank earned more than the
average. Similarly, those who begin work with college degrees are paid
more. Exhibit 1–3 shows some of the employment possibilities in corrections.
Page 8 10 11 12 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now?
https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 12/15 EXHIBIT 1–3 Careers in
Corrections 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now?
https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 13/15 Prisons mean jobs and can
contribute greatly to the health of local economies. Some economically
disadvantaged towns—from Tupper Lake, in the Adirondack Mountains of
upstate New York, to Edgeeld, South Carolina—recently cashed in on the
corrections industry, having successfully competed to become sites for new
prisons. Although prison populations have recently fallen, a number of states
are building new prisons to replace failing prison infrastructure with safer,
more secure facilities that accommodate the rehabilitation of incarcerated
people. In 2021, for example, the state of Alabama announced the planned
construction of two new correctional facilities to be built on state-owned
land. The two new facilities, each designed to hold 4,000 persons in
connement will cost approximately $700 million to build and will contribute
about $30 million a year to the local economy. Academic teacher Activity
therapy administrator Business manager Case manager Chaplain Chemical
dependency manager Children’s services counselor Classication ocer Clinical
social worker Correctional ocer Dietary ocer Drug court coordinator Field
administrator Fugitive apprehension ocer Human services counselor Job
placement ocer Mental health clinician Parole caseworker Parole ocer
Presentence investigator Probation ocer Program ocer Program specialist
Programmer/analyst Psychologist Recreation coordinator Social worker
Statistician Substance abuse counselor Unit leader Victim advocate
Vocational instructor Warden/superintendent Youth services coordinator
Youth supervisor 13 14 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do We
Go Now? https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-
uuid-3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 14/15 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The
Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now? https://prod.reader-
ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 15/15
CO1-1 THE CARCERAL STATE: WHERE DO WE GO NOW? One amazing fact
stands out from all the contemporary information about American
corrections: While serious crime in the United States consistently declined
throughout much of the 1990s, and while such declines continued into the
rst two decades of the 21st century, the number of people under correctional
supervision in this country—not just the number of people who have been
convicted and sent to prison—started to skyrocket during the 1980s, and
only began to drop after 2010. Crime rates are approximately 20 percent
lower today than they were in 1980. In fact, they are near their lowest level
in 35 years. But the number of people under correctional supervision
increased almost 300% between 1980 and 2010— when it nally started to
decline. During that period, the federal prison population went from 11
incarcerated persons for every 100,000 U.S. residents to 68. Annual
spending on the federal prison system rose 600 percent, from $970 million to
more than $6.7 billion in ination-adjusted dollars. States, like the federal
government, recorded sharp increases in incarceration and corrections costs
over the three 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now?
https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 1/15 decades from 1980 to 2010.
Numbers like these show that the era of mass incarceration, created a
widescale reliance on the use of imprisonment to address the nation’s
problems. By the turn of the 21st century, the provision of correctional
services of all kinds had become a major strain on government budgets at all
levels. Page 4 Today, progress is being made in bringing imprisonment rates
down. By 2020, the imprisonment rate at the federal level had fallen to 43
persons out of every 100,000 U.S. residents—and it continues to decline. In
just one year (between 2019 and 2020), federal prisons showed a 40%
decrease in new admissions. State prisons showed similar declines, with the
largest percentage declines in admissions in California, which had 66% fewer
admissions in 2020 than in 2019, and in New York where admissions to
prison decreased by 60%. Although some of the decline in prison admissions
was the result of new government policies, the bulk of it was due to the fact
that courts across the country altered their operations during the COVID
epidemic, leading to delays in trials and the sentencing of persons. Alongside
fewer admissions, there have also been increases in the number of persons
released from prison, but when viewed historically American prison
populations continue to be extraordinarily high ( Exhibit 1-1). Critics of
today’s continued high rates of imprisonment sometimes refer to our country
as a carceral state. The term carceral state implies that government power is
being used to incapacitate, incarcerate, detain, or otherwise limit the
physical freedom of vast numbers of people, extending far beyond that
necessary to ensure a safe and just society. Of course, the words “safe” and
“just” are critical and reveal that social justice concerns need to be balanced
with public safety in determining appropriate levels of incapacitation not only
in the United States but in any society. Those who support the widespread
use of incarceration argue that public safety can be assured only through
incapacitation of those who are dangerous. But “dangerousness” can be a
slippery concept when applied to social activity that may 3 1/26/25, 4:40 PM
The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now? https://prod.reader-
ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 2/15 not physically harm others
directly—as when those who use (or even trac in) illicit drugs are arrested
and prosecuted. Nora Krinitsky, Director of the Carceral State Project at the
University of Michigan, says, “The term carceral state often calls to mind
institutions of connement like jails, detention centers, prisons, but … it also
comprises a wide range of policies, practices, and institutions that scrutinize
individuals and communities both before and after their contact with the
criminal justice system.” We might also add that, in a true carceral state, the
justice system employs millions of men and women who directly depend
upon high rates of imprisonment and detention to earn a living. 4 1/26/25,
4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now? https://prod.reader-
ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 3/15 EXHIBIT 1–1 The Growth of
Imprisonment in the United States Page 5 Source: Bureau of Justice Statistics
1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now?
https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 4/15 The question that needs to be
answered is, “Why?” Why did the American correctional population increase
so dramatically in recent decades even in the face of declining crime rates?
And why is the United States still in the midst of an era of mass
incarceration? The answer to these questions, like the answers to most
societal enigmas, is far from simple, and it has a number of dimensions. We
identify four such dimensions in the material that follows. First, it is
important to recognize that get-tough-on-crime laws, such as the
threestrikes (and two-strikes) laws that were enacted in many states during
the mid1990s, fueled rapid increases in prison populations. The conservative
attitudes that gave birth to those laws are still largely with us, and much of
the increase in state prison populations has come from imprisoning more
people for violent crimes for longer periods of time. At the federal level, the
Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 encouraged longer
prison sentences for more crimes and led to the adoption of harsher
sentencing regimes throughout the nation. A second reason that correctional
populations increased rapidly during the 1990s and the decade that followed
can be found in the Twentieth Century’s War on Drugs. The War on Drugs led
to the arrest and conviction of many people, resulting in larger correctional
populations in nearly every jurisdiction (especially within the federal
correctional system). The congressional Colson Task Force on Federal
Corrections, which issued its report ten years ago, found that “The biggest
driver of growth” in the federal prison population was “federally sentenced
drug oenders, almost all of whom were convicted of drug tracking” (see
Exhibit 1–2 for drug arrests, and compare it with Exhibit 1–1 to see the
impact of drug arrests on prison populations). Many drug arrestees—
especially trackers—are sentenced to lengthy prison terms, further
increasing the number of people in prison, and many such people have
multiple convictions, including use (or possession) of a rearm during a drug
transaction. So although today’s drive to legalize marijuana and other
previously illicit substances may lead to fewer imprisoned persons in the
future, the last century’s War on Drugs goes a long way 5 6 1/26/25, 4:40 PM
The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now? https://prod.reader-
ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 5/15 toward explaining the historical
growth in correctional populations even while the rate of “serious crime” in
the United States was declining. 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where
Do We Go Now?
https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 6/15 EXHIBIT 1–2 U.S. Drug Arrests,
1980–2020. Page 6 Source: Bureau of Justice Statistics. 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The
Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now? https://prod.reader-
ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 7/15 Third, parole authorities became
increasingly reluctant to release people on parole for fear of the civil liability
that they could face should those people commit new crimes. This
contributed to a further expansion of prison populations. Fourth, as some
observers have noted, the corrections boom created its own growth dynamic.
As ever increasing numbers of people were placed on probation, the
likelihood of probation violations increased. Prison sentences for more and
more violators resulted in larger prison populations. When people who have
been in prison are released, they swell the numbers of those on parole,
leading to a larger number of parole violations, which in turn can still fuel
further prison growth. Statistics show that the number of persons convicted
of violating the criminal law and then sent to prison for at least the second
time has increased steadily, accounting for approximately 35 percent of the
total number of admissions. One analysis of the dramatic increase in
imprisonment, found that it “was not driven by a centralized national-level
strategy for dealing with crime and was not based on a coherent body of
empirical knowledge demonstrating that prisons improved public safety.”
Instead, said the report, “it was the product of layers of legislative decisions,
primarily enacted at the state level, to charge and imprison more oenders,
increase sentences, limit prison releases, and expand” prison capacity. These
decisions led to a new era in which prisons became primary weapons in what
was then seen as the nation’s war on drugs and on crime. 7 8 1/26/25, 4:40
PM The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now? https://prod.reader-
ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 8/15 U.S. correctional populations
have grown dramatically over the past 40 years, as this image of
incarcerated persons living in a modified gymnasium at the Mule Creek State
Prison in Ione, California, illustrates. What factors led to a substantial
increase in the use of imprisonment in this country beginning in the 1980s?
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do
We Go Now?
https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 9/15 Turning the Corner in U.S. Prison
Populations While get-tough-on-crime attitudes continue to persist among
signicant segments of American society today, they have largely been
trumped by economic realities. State budgets have been hard pressed to
continue funding prison expansion, and the number of people behind bars
began to show a slow decline beginning around 2010. Alternatives to
imprisonment, most of which will be discussed in coming chapters, are many
and include probation, nes, and community service—to which people who
have been convicted are being sentenced in increasing numbers. In order to
reduce correctional expenditures even further, some states are using forms
of early release from prison, shortening time served, reducing the period of
probation or parole supervision, and shifting the responsibility of supervising
people who have been convicted to county-level governments (and away
from state responsibility). We will examine these innovations at various
places throughout this text. As states grappled with the economic realities of
reduced revenues and constrained budgets beginning in the early 2000s, it
became increasingly important to get the most “bang for the buck,” so to
speak, out of correctional programs. The realization that imprisonment had
become too expensive, combined with a number of other factors, led to a
decline in prison populations. Other reasons for the decline include: 1.
Criminal justice reform policies—Many states have enacted policies aimed at
reducing the use of imprisonment and promoting alternatives to
incarceration, such as drug courts and community supervision programs. 2. A
decrease in crime rates—In recent years, crime rates in the United States
have generally been declining (contrary to what the popular media might
depict), which has contributed to a reduction in the number of people being
sentenced to prison. 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do We Go
Now? https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 10/15 Page 7 In her incoming
presidential address to the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences, Melissa
Hickman Barlow outlined a plan for the implementation of sustainable
justice. Barlow dened sustainable justice as “criminal laws and criminal
justice institutions, policies, and practices that achieve justice in the present
without compromising the ability of future generations to have the benets of
a just society.” Barlow’s call for aordable justice, based on principles and
operating practices that can be carried into the future without bankrupting
generations yet to come, represents an important turning point in our
nation’s approach to corrections and other justice institutions. These and
other factors have contributed to a reduction in the number of people being
incarcerated in the United States and a growing recognition of the need to
adopt evidence-based policies. As we will see in the next chapter, the
evidencebased movement in corrections seeks to evaluate programs and
services to see which are the most eective relative to their costs. Evidence-
based practices play an important role in correctional administration today—
and should contribute much to the call for sustainable justice and continue to
contribute to a decline in the use of imprisonment. 3. Reforms to sentencing
laws—Some states have passed laws to reduce mandatory minimum
sentences and provide greater discretion to judges in imposing sentences,
which has, in turn, led to fewer people being sentenced to long prison terms.
4. Decarceration initiatives—In response to overcrowding, budget
constraints, and public pressure, some states have implemented initiatives
to safely reduce their prison populations, such as early release programs and
parole reforms. 5. Changes in drug enforcement policies—Some states have
adopted reforms to their drug enforcement policies, such as reducing
sentences for drug oenses and expanding access to treatment, all of which
have reduced the number of people incarcerated for drug-related crimes. 9
1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now?
https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 11/15 Correctional Employment As
correctional populations peaked, increasing budgets led to a dramatically
expanding correctional workforce and enhanced employment opportunities
within the eld. Much of that momentum continues into the present day. In
2023, for example, the North Carolina Department of Public Safety oered a
$7,000 hiring bonus for new correctional ocers (COs), and the Tennessee
Department of Corrections provided a $5,000 bonus to newly hired ocers. At
the same time, the Nebraska Department of Correctional Services provided a
bonus of $15,000 for experienced COs (i.e., for those at the rank of corporal
or higher) who were willing to work at the Nebraska State Penitentiary and
other select facilities. According to historical reports, persons employed in
the corrections eld totaled approximately 27,000 in 1950. By 1975, the
number had risen to about 75,000. Estimates published by the Bureau of
Labor Statistics (BLS) in 2021 show that over 400,000 government
employees throughout the United States worked in corrections, with a total
monthly payroll of around $3 billion. BLS also found that the average hourly
and annual wage for COs and jailers was $25.69 and $53,420, respectively.
Of course, supervisors and those at higher rank earned more than the
average. Similarly, those who begin work with college degrees are paid
more. Exhibit 1–3 shows some of the employment possibilities in corrections.
Page 8 10 11 12 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now?
https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 12/15 EXHIBIT 1–3 Careers in
Corrections 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now?
https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 13/15 Prisons mean jobs and can
contribute greatly to the health of local economies. Some economically
disadvantaged towns—from Tupper Lake, in the Adirondack Mountains of
upstate New York, to Edgeeld, South Carolina—recently cashed in on the
corrections industry, having successfully competed to become sites for new
prisons. Although prison populations have recently fallen, a number of states
are building new prisons to replace failing prison infrastructure with safer,
more secure facilities that accommodate the rehabilitation of incarcerated
people. In 2021, for example, the state of Alabama announced the planned
construction of two new correctional facilities to be built on state-owned
land. The two new facilities, each designed to hold 4,000 persons in
connement will cost approximately $700 million to build and will contribute
about $30 million a year to the local economy. Academic teacher Activity
therapy administrator Business manager Case manager Chaplain Chemical
dependency manager Children’s services counselor Classication ocer Clinical
social worker Correctional ocer Dietary ocer Drug court coordinator Field
administrator Fugitive apprehension ocer Human services counselor Job
placement ocer Mental health clinician Parole caseworker Parole ocer
Presentence investigator Probation ocer Program ocer Program specialist
Programmer/analyst Psychologist Recreation coordinator Social worker
Statistician Substance abuse counselor Unit leader Victim advocate
Vocational instructor Warden/superintendent Youth services coordinator
Youth supervisor 13 14 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do We
Go Now? https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-
uuid-3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 14/15 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The
Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now? https://prod.reader-
ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 15/15
CO1-1 THE CARCERAL STATE: WHERE DO WE GO NOW? One amazing fact
stands out from all the contemporary information about American
corrections: While serious crime in the United States consistently declined
throughout much of the 1990s, and while such declines continued into the
rst two decades of the 21st century, the number of people under correctional
supervision in this country—not just the number of people who have been
convicted and sent to prison—started to skyrocket during the 1980s, and
only began to drop after 2010. Crime rates are approximately 20 percent
lower today than they were in 1980. In fact, they are near their lowest level
in 35 years. But the number of people under correctional supervision
increased almost 300% between 1980 and 2010— when it nally started to
decline. During that period, the federal prison population went from 11
incarcerated persons for every 100,000 U.S. residents to 68. Annual
spending on the federal prison system rose 600 percent, from $970 million to
more than $6.7 billion in ination-adjusted dollars. States, like the federal
government, recorded sharp increases in incarceration and corrections costs
over the three 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now?
https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 1/15 decades from 1980 to 2010.
Numbers like these show that the era of mass incarceration, created a
widescale reliance on the use of imprisonment to address the nation’s
problems. By the turn of the 21st century, the provision of correctional
services of all kinds had become a major strain on government budgets at all
levels. Page 4 Today, progress is being made in bringing imprisonment rates
down. By 2020, the imprisonment rate at the federal level had fallen to 43
persons out of every 100,000 U.S. residents—and it continues to decline. In
just one year (between 2019 and 2020), federal prisons showed a 40%
decrease in new admissions. State prisons showed similar declines, with the
largest percentage declines in admissions in California, which had 66% fewer
admissions in 2020 than in 2019, and in New York where admissions to
prison decreased by 60%. Although some of the decline in prison admissions
was the result of new government policies, the bulk of it was due to the fact
that courts across the country altered their operations during the COVID
epidemic, leading to delays in trials and the sentencing of persons. Alongside
fewer admissions, there have also been increases in the number of persons
released from prison, but when viewed historically American prison
populations continue to be extraordinarily high ( Exhibit 1-1). Critics of
today’s continued high rates of imprisonment sometimes refer to our country
as a carceral state. The term carceral state implies that government power is
being used to incapacitate, incarcerate, detain, or otherwise limit the
physical freedom of vast numbers of people, extending far beyond that
necessary to ensure a safe and just society. Of course, the words “safe” and
“just” are critical and reveal that social justice concerns need to be balanced
with public safety in determining appropriate levels of incapacitation not only
in the United States but in any society. Those who support the widespread
use of incarceration argue that public safety can be assured only through
incapacitation of those who are dangerous. But “dangerousness” can be a
slippery concept when applied to social activity that may 3 1/26/25, 4:40 PM
The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now? https://prod.reader-
ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 2/15 not physically harm others
directly—as when those who use (or even trac in) illicit drugs are arrested
and prosecuted. Nora Krinitsky, Director of the Carceral State Project at the
University of Michigan, says, “The term carceral state often calls to mind
institutions of connement like jails, detention centers, prisons, but … it also
comprises a wide range of policies, practices, and institutions that scrutinize
individuals and communities both before and after their contact with the
criminal justice system.” We might also add that, in a true carceral state, the
justice system employs millions of men and women who directly depend
upon high rates of imprisonment and detention to earn a living. 4 1/26/25,
4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now? https://prod.reader-
ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 3/15 EXHIBIT 1–1 The Growth of
Imprisonment in the United States Page 5 Source: Bureau of Justice Statistics
1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now?
https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 4/15 The question that needs to be
answered is, “Why?” Why did the American correctional population increase
so dramatically in recent decades even in the face of declining crime rates?
And why is the United States still in the midst of an era of mass
incarceration? The answer to these questions, like the answers to most
societal enigmas, is far from simple, and it has a number of dimensions. We
identify four such dimensions in the material that follows. First, it is
important to recognize that get-tough-on-crime laws, such as the
threestrikes (and two-strikes) laws that were enacted in many states during
the mid1990s, fueled rapid increases in prison populations. The conservative
attitudes that gave birth to those laws are still largely with us, and much of
the increase in state prison populations has come from imprisoning more
people for violent crimes for longer periods of time. At the federal level, the
Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 encouraged longer
prison sentences for more crimes and led to the adoption of harsher
sentencing regimes throughout the nation. A second reason that correctional
populations increased rapidly during the 1990s and the decade that followed
can be found in the Twentieth Century’s War on Drugs. The War on Drugs led
to the arrest and conviction of many people, resulting in larger correctional
populations in nearly every jurisdiction (especially within the federal
correctional system). The congressional Colson Task Force on Federal
Corrections, which issued its report ten years ago, found that “The biggest
driver of growth” in the federal prison population was “federally sentenced
drug oenders, almost all of whom were convicted of drug tracking” (see
Exhibit 1–2 for drug arrests, and compare it with Exhibit 1–1 to see the
impact of drug arrests on prison populations). Many drug arrestees—
especially trackers—are sentenced to lengthy prison terms, further
increasing the number of people in prison, and many such people have
multiple convictions, including use (or possession) of a rearm during a drug
transaction. So although today’s drive to legalize marijuana and other
previously illicit substances may lead to fewer imprisoned persons in the
future, the last century’s War on Drugs goes a long way 5 6 1/26/25, 4:40 PM
The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now? https://prod.reader-
ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 5/15 toward explaining the historical
growth in correctional populations even while the rate of “serious crime” in
the United States was declining. 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where
Do We Go Now?
https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 6/15 EXHIBIT 1–2 U.S. Drug Arrests,
1980–2020. Page 6 Source: Bureau of Justice Statistics. 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The
Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now? https://prod.reader-
ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 7/15 Third, parole authorities became
increasingly reluctant to release people on parole for fear of the civil liability
that they could face should those people commit new crimes. This
contributed to a further expansion of prison populations. Fourth, as some
observers have noted, the corrections boom created its own growth dynamic.
As ever increasing numbers of people were placed on probation, the
likelihood of probation violations increased. Prison sentences for more and
more violators resulted in larger prison populations. When people who have
been in prison are released, they swell the numbers of those on parole,
leading to a larger number of parole violations, which in turn can still fuel
further prison growth. Statistics show that the number of persons convicted
of violating the criminal law and then sent to prison for at least the second
time has increased steadily, accounting for approximately 35 percent of the
total number of admissions. One analysis of the dramatic increase in
imprisonment, found that it “was not driven by a centralized national-level
strategy for dealing with crime and was not based on a coherent body of
empirical knowledge demonstrating that prisons improved public safety.”
Instead, said the report, “it was the product of layers of legislative decisions,
primarily enacted at the state level, to charge and imprison more oenders,
increase sentences, limit prison releases, and expand” prison capacity. These
decisions led to a new era in which prisons became primary weapons in what
was then seen as the nation’s war on drugs and on crime. 7 8 1/26/25, 4:40
PM The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now? https://prod.reader-
ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 8/15 U.S. correctional populations
have grown dramatically over the past 40 years, as this image of
incarcerated persons living in a modified gymnasium at the Mule Creek State
Prison in Ione, California, illustrates. What factors led to a substantial
increase in the use of imprisonment in this country beginning in the 1980s?
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do
We Go Now?
https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 9/15 Turning the Corner in U.S. Prison
Populations While get-tough-on-crime attitudes continue to persist among
signicant segments of American society today, they have largely been
trumped by economic realities. State budgets have been hard pressed to
continue funding prison expansion, and the number of people behind bars
began to show a slow decline beginning around 2010. Alternatives to
imprisonment, most of which will be discussed in coming chapters, are many
and include probation, nes, and community service—to which people who
have been convicted are being sentenced in increasing numbers. In order to
reduce correctional expenditures even further, some states are using forms
of early release from prison, shortening time served, reducing the period of
probation or parole supervision, and shifting the responsibility of supervising
people who have been convicted to county-level governments (and away
from state responsibility). We will examine these innovations at various
places throughout this text. As states grappled with the economic realities of
reduced revenues and constrained budgets beginning in the early 2000s, it
became increasingly important to get the most “bang for the buck,” so to
speak, out of correctional programs. The realization that imprisonment had
become too expensive, combined with a number of other factors, led to a
decline in prison populations. Other reasons for the decline include: 1.
Criminal justice reform policies—Many states have enacted policies aimed at
reducing the use of imprisonment and promoting alternatives to
incarceration, such as drug courts and community supervision programs. 2. A
decrease in crime rates—In recent years, crime rates in the United States
have generally been declining (contrary to what the popular media might
depict), which has contributed to a reduction in the number of people being
sentenced to prison. 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do We Go
Now? https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 10/15 Page 7 In her incoming
presidential address to the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences, Melissa
Hickman Barlow outlined a plan for the implementation of sustainable
justice. Barlow dened sustainable justice as “criminal laws and criminal
justice institutions, policies, and practices that achieve justice in the present
without compromising the ability of future generations to have the benets of
a just society.” Barlow’s call for aordable justice, based on principles and
operating practices that can be carried into the future without bankrupting
generations yet to come, represents an important turning point in our
nation’s approach to corrections and other justice institutions. These and
other factors have contributed to a reduction in the number of people being
incarcerated in the United States and a growing recognition of the need to
adopt evidence-based policies. As we will see in the next chapter, the
evidencebased movement in corrections seeks to evaluate programs and
services to see which are the most eective relative to their costs. Evidence-
based practices play an important role in correctional administration today—
and should contribute much to the call for sustainable justice and continue to
contribute to a decline in the use of imprisonment. 3. Reforms to sentencing
laws—Some states have passed laws to reduce mandatory minimum
sentences and provide greater discretion to judges in imposing sentences,
which has, in turn, led to fewer people being sentenced to long prison terms.
4. Decarceration initiatives—In response to overcrowding, budget
constraints, and public pressure, some states have implemented initiatives
to safely reduce their prison populations, such as early release programs and
parole reforms. 5. Changes in drug enforcement policies—Some states have
adopted reforms to their drug enforcement policies, such as reducing
sentences for drug oenses and expanding access to treatment, all of which
have reduced the number of people incarcerated for drug-related crimes. 9
1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now?
https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 11/15 Correctional Employment As
correctional populations peaked, increasing budgets led to a dramatically
expanding correctional workforce and enhanced employment opportunities
within the eld. Much of that momentum continues into the present day. In
2023, for example, the North Carolina Department of Public Safety oered a
$7,000 hiring bonus for new correctional ocers (COs), and the Tennessee
Department of Corrections provided a $5,000 bonus to newly hired ocers. At
the same time, the Nebraska Department of Correctional Services provided a
bonus of $15,000 for experienced COs (i.e., for those at the rank of corporal
or higher) who were willing to work at the Nebraska State Penitentiary and
other select facilities. According to historical reports, persons employed in
the corrections eld totaled approximately 27,000 in 1950. By 1975, the
number had risen to about 75,000. Estimates published by the Bureau of
Labor Statistics (BLS) in 2021 show that over 400,000 government
employees throughout the United States worked in corrections, with a total
monthly payroll of around $3 billion. BLS also found that the average hourly
and annual wage for COs and jailers was $25.69 and $53,420, respectively.
Of course, supervisors and those at higher rank earned more than the
average. Similarly, those who begin work with college degrees are paid
more. Exhibit 1–3 shows some of the employment possibilities in corrections.
Page 8 10 11 12 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now?
https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 12/15 EXHIBIT 1–3 Careers in
Corrections 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now?
https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 13/15 Prisons mean jobs and can
contribute greatly to the health of local economies. Some economically
disadvantaged towns—from Tupper Lake, in the Adirondack Mountains of
upstate New York, to Edgeeld, South Carolina—recently cashed in on the
corrections industry, having successfully competed to become sites for new
prisons. Although prison populations have recently fallen, a number of states
are building new prisons to replace failing prison infrastructure with safer,
more secure facilities that accommodate the rehabilitation of incarcerated
people. In 2021, for example, the state of Alabama announced the planned
construction of two new correctional facilities to be built on state-owned
land. The two new facilities, each designed to hold 4,000 persons in
connement will cost approximately $700 million to build and will contribute
about $30 million a year to the local economy. Academic teacher Activity
therapy administrator Business manager Case manager Chaplain Chemical
dependency manager Children’s services counselor Classication ocer Clinical
social worker Correctional ocer Dietary ocer Drug court coordinator Field
administrator Fugitive apprehension ocer Human services counselor Job
placement ocer Mental health clinician Parole caseworker Parole ocer
Presentence investigator Probation ocer Program ocer Program specialist
Programmer/analyst Psychologist Recreation coordinator Social worker
Statistician Substance abuse counselor Unit leader Victim advocate
Vocational instructor Warden/superintendent Youth services coordinator
Youth supervisor 13 14 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do We
Go Now? https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-
uuid-3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 14/15 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The
Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now? https://prod.reader-
ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 15/15
CO1-1 THE CARCERAL STATE: WHERE DO WE GO NOW? One amazing fact
stands out from all the contemporary information about American
corrections: While serious crime in the United States consistently declined
throughout much of the 1990s, and while such declines continued into the
rst two decades of the 21st century, the number of people under correctional
supervision in this country—not just the number of people who have been
convicted and sent to prison—started to skyrocket during the 1980s, and
only began to drop after 2010. Crime rates are approximately 20 percent
lower today than they were in 1980. In fact, they are near their lowest level
in 35 years. But the number of people under correctional supervision
increased almost 300% between 1980 and 2010— when it nally started to
decline. During that period, the federal prison population went from 11
incarcerated persons for every 100,000 U.S. residents to 68. Annual
spending on the federal prison system rose 600 percent, from $970 million to
more than $6.7 billion in ination-adjusted dollars. States, like the federal
government, recorded sharp increases in incarceration and corrections costs
over the three 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now?
https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 1/15 decades from 1980 to 2010.
Numbers like these show that the era of mass incarceration, created a
widescale reliance on the use of imprisonment to address the nation’s
problems. By the turn of the 21st century, the provision of correctional
services of all kinds had become a major strain on government budgets at all
levels. Page 4 Today, progress is being made in bringing imprisonment rates
down. By 2020, the imprisonment rate at the federal level had fallen to 43
persons out of every 100,000 U.S. residents—and it continues to decline. In
just one year (between 2019 and 2020), federal prisons showed a 40%
decrease in new admissions. State prisons showed similar declines, with the
largest percentage declines in admissions in California, which had 66% fewer
admissions in 2020 than in 2019, and in New York where admissions to
prison decreased by 60%. Although some of the decline in prison admissions
was the result of new government policies, the bulk of it was due to the fact
that courts across the country altered their operations during the COVID
epidemic, leading to delays in trials and the sentencing of persons. Alongside
fewer admissions, there have also been increases in the number of persons
released from prison, but when viewed historically American prison
populations continue to be extraordinarily high ( Exhibit 1-1). Critics of
today’s continued high rates of imprisonment sometimes refer to our country
as a carceral state. The term carceral state implies that government power is
being used to incapacitate, incarcerate, detain, or otherwise limit the
physical freedom of vast numbers of people, extending far beyond that
necessary to ensure a safe and just society. Of course, the words “safe” and
“just” are critical and reveal that social justice concerns need to be balanced
with public safety in determining appropriate levels of incapacitation not only
in the United States but in any society. Those who support the widespread
use of incarceration argue that public safety can be assured only through
incapacitation of those who are dangerous. But “dangerousness” can be a
slippery concept when applied to social activity that may 3 1/26/25, 4:40 PM
The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now? https://prod.reader-
ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 2/15 not physically harm others
directly—as when those who use (or even trac in) illicit drugs are arrested
and prosecuted. Nora Krinitsky, Director of the Carceral State Project at the
University of Michigan, says, “The term carceral state often calls to mind
institutions of connement like jails, detention centers, prisons, but … it also
comprises a wide range of policies, practices, and institutions that scrutinize
individuals and communities both before and after their contact with the
criminal justice system.” We might also add that, in a true carceral state, the
justice system employs millions of men and women who directly depend
upon high rates of imprisonment and detention to earn a living. 4 1/26/25,
4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now? https://prod.reader-
ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 3/15 EXHIBIT 1–1 The Growth of
Imprisonment in the United States Page 5 Source: Bureau of Justice Statistics
1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now?
https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 4/15 The question that needs to be
answered is, “Why?” Why did the American correctional population increase
so dramatically in recent decades even in the face of declining crime rates?
And why is the United States still in the midst of an era of mass
incarceration? The answer to these questions, like the answers to most
societal enigmas, is far from simple, and it has a number of dimensions. We
identify four such dimensions in the material that follows. First, it is
important to recognize that get-tough-on-crime laws, such as the
threestrikes (and two-strikes) laws that were enacted in many states during
the mid1990s, fueled rapid increases in prison populations. The conservative
attitudes that gave birth to those laws are still largely with us, and much of
the increase in state prison populations has come from imprisoning more
people for violent crimes for longer periods of time. At the federal level, the
Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 encouraged longer
prison sentences for more crimes and led to the adoption of harsher
sentencing regimes throughout the nation. A second reason that correctional
populations increased rapidly during the 1990s and the decade that followed
can be found in the Twentieth Century’s War on Drugs. The War on Drugs led
to the arrest and conviction of many people, resulting in larger correctional
populations in nearly every jurisdiction (especially within the federal
correctional system). The congressional Colson Task Force on Federal
Corrections, which issued its report ten years ago, found that “The biggest
driver of growth” in the federal prison population was “federally sentenced
drug oenders, almost all of whom were convicted of drug tracking” (see
Exhibit 1–2 for drug arrests, and compare it with Exhibit 1–1 to see the
impact of drug arrests on prison populations). Many drug arrestees—
especially trackers—are sentenced to lengthy prison terms, further
increasing the number of people in prison, and many such people have
multiple convictions, including use (or possession) of a rearm during a drug
transaction. So although today’s drive to legalize marijuana and other
previously illicit substances may lead to fewer imprisoned persons in the
future, the last century’s War on Drugs goes a long way 5 6 1/26/25, 4:40 PM
The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now? https://prod.reader-
ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 5/15 toward explaining the historical
growth in correctional populations even while the rate of “serious crime” in
the United States was declining. 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where
Do We Go Now?
https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 6/15 EXHIBIT 1–2 U.S. Drug Arrests,
1980–2020. Page 6 Source: Bureau of Justice Statistics. 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The
Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now? https://prod.reader-
ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 7/15 Third, parole authorities became
increasingly reluctant to release people on parole for fear of the civil liability
that they could face should those people commit new crimes. This
contributed to a further expansion of prison populations. Fourth, as some
observers have noted, the corrections boom created its own growth dynamic.
As ever increasing numbers of people were placed on probation, the
likelihood of probation violations increased. Prison sentences for more and
more violators resulted in larger prison populations. When people who have
been in prison are released, they swell the numbers of those on parole,
leading to a larger number of parole violations, which in turn can still fuel
further prison growth. Statistics show that the number of persons convicted
of violating the criminal law and then sent to prison for at least the second
time has increased steadily, accounting for approximately 35 percent of the
total number of admissions. One analysis of the dramatic increase in
imprisonment, found that it “was not driven by a centralized national-level
strategy for dealing with crime and was not based on a coherent body of
empirical knowledge demonstrating that prisons improved public safety.”
Instead, said the report, “it was the product of layers of legislative decisions,
primarily enacted at the state level, to charge and imprison more oenders,
increase sentences, limit prison releases, and expand” prison capacity. These
decisions led to a new era in which prisons became primary weapons in what
was then seen as the nation’s war on drugs and on crime. 7 8 1/26/25, 4:40
PM The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now? https://prod.reader-
ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 8/15 U.S. correctional populations
have grown dramatically over the past 40 years, as this image of
incarcerated persons living in a modified gymnasium at the Mule Creek State
Prison in Ione, California, illustrates. What factors led to a substantial
increase in the use of imprisonment in this country beginning in the 1980s?
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do
We Go Now?
https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 9/15 Turning the Corner in U.S. Prison
Populations While get-tough-on-crime attitudes continue to persist among
signicant segments of American society today, they have largely been
trumped by economic realities. State budgets have been hard pressed to
continue funding prison expansion, and the number of people behind bars
began to show a slow decline beginning around 2010. Alternatives to
imprisonment, most of which will be discussed in coming chapters, are many
and include probation, nes, and community service—to which people who
have been convicted are being sentenced in increasing numbers. In order to
reduce correctional expenditures even further, some states are using forms
of early release from prison, shortening time served, reducing the period of
probation or parole supervision, and shifting the responsibility of supervising
people who have been convicted to county-level governments (and away
from state responsibility). We will examine these innovations at various
places throughout this text. As states grappled with the economic realities of
reduced revenues and constrained budgets beginning in the early 2000s, it
became increasingly important to get the most “bang for the buck,” so to
speak, out of correctional programs. The realization that imprisonment had
become too expensive, combined with a number of other factors, led to a
decline in prison populations. Other reasons for the decline include: 1.
Criminal justice reform policies—Many states have enacted policies aimed at
reducing the use of imprisonment and promoting alternatives to
incarceration, such as drug courts and community supervision programs. 2. A
decrease in crime rates—In recent years, crime rates in the United States
have generally been declining (contrary to what the popular media might
depict), which has contributed to a reduction in the number of people being
sentenced to prison. 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do We Go
Now? https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 10/15 Page 7 In her incoming
presidential address to the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences, Melissa
Hickman Barlow outlined a plan for the implementation of sustainable
justice. Barlow dened sustainable justice as “criminal laws and criminal
justice institutions, policies, and practices that achieve justice in the present
without compromising the ability of future generations to have the benets of
a just society.” Barlow’s call for aordable justice, based on principles and
operating practices that can be carried into the future without bankrupting
generations yet to come, represents an important turning point in our
nation’s approach to corrections and other justice institutions. These and
other factors have contributed to a reduction in the number of people being
incarcerated in the United States and a growing recognition of the need to
adopt evidence-based policies. As we will see in the next chapter, the
evidencebased movement in corrections seeks to evaluate programs and
services to see which are the most eective relative to their costs. Evidence-
based practices play an important role in correctional administration today—
and should contribute much to the call for sustainable justice and continue to
contribute to a decline in the use of imprisonment. 3. Reforms to sentencing
laws—Some states have passed laws to reduce mandatory minimum
sentences and provide greater discretion to judges in imposing sentences,
which has, in turn, led to fewer people being sentenced to long prison terms.
4. Decarceration initiatives—In response to overcrowding, budget
constraints, and public pressure, some states have implemented initiatives
to safely reduce their prison populations, such as early release programs and
parole reforms. 5. Changes in drug enforcement policies—Some states have
adopted reforms to their drug enforcement policies, such as reducing
sentences for drug oenses and expanding access to treatment, all of which
have reduced the number of people incarcerated for drug-related crimes. 9
1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now?
https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 11/15 Correctional Employment As
correctional populations peaked, increasing budgets led to a dramatically
expanding correctional workforce and enhanced employment opportunities
within the eld. Much of that momentum continues into the present day. In
2023, for example, the North Carolina Department of Public Safety oered a
$7,000 hiring bonus for new correctional ocers (COs), and the Tennessee
Department of Corrections provided a $5,000 bonus to newly hired ocers. At
the same time, the Nebraska Department of Correctional Services provided a
bonus of $15,000 for experienced COs (i.e., for those at the rank of corporal
or higher) who were willing to work at the Nebraska State Penitentiary and
other select facilities. According to historical reports, persons employed in
the corrections eld totaled approximately 27,000 in 1950. By 1975, the
number had risen to about 75,000. Estimates published by the Bureau of
Labor Statistics (BLS) in 2021 show that over 400,000 government
employees throughout the United States worked in corrections, with a total
monthly payroll of around $3 billion. BLS also found that the average hourly
and annual wage for COs and jailers was $25.69 and $53,420, respectively.
Of course, supervisors and those at higher rank earned more than the
average. Similarly, those who begin work with college degrees are paid
more. Exhibit 1–3 shows some of the employment possibilities in corrections.
Page 8 10 11 12 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now?
https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 12/15 EXHIBIT 1–3 Careers in
Corrections 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now?
https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 13/15 Prisons mean jobs and can
contribute greatly to the health of local economies. Some economically
disadvantaged towns—from Tupper Lake, in the Adirondack Mountains of
upstate New York, to Edgeeld, South Carolina—recently cashed in on the
corrections industry, having successfully competed to become sites for new
prisons. Although prison populations have recently fallen, a number of states
are building new prisons to replace failing prison infrastructure with safer,
more secure facilities that accommodate the rehabilitation of incarcerated
people. In 2021, for example, the state of Alabama announced the planned
construction of two new correctional facilities to be built on state-owned
land. The two new facilities, each designed to hold 4,000 persons in
connement will cost approximately $700 million to build and will contribute
about $30 million a year to the local economy. Academic teacher Activity
therapy administrator Business manager Case manager Chaplain Chemical
dependency manager Children’s services counselor Classication ocer Clinical
social worker Correctional ocer Dietary ocer Drug court coordinator Field
administrator Fugitive apprehension ocer Human services counselor Job
placement ocer Mental health clinician Parole caseworker Parole ocer
Presentence investigator Probation ocer Program ocer Program specialist
Programmer/analyst Psychologist Recreation coordinator Social worker
Statistician Substance abuse counselor Unit leader Victim advocate
Vocational instructor Warden/superintendent Youth services coordinator
Youth supervisor 13 14 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do We
Go Now? https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-
uuid-3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 14/15 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The
Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now? https://prod.reader-
ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 15/15
CO1-1 THE CARCERAL STATE: WHERE DO WE GO NOW? One amazing fact
stands out from all the contemporary information about American
corrections: While serious crime in the United States consistently declined
throughout much of the 1990s, and while such declines continued into the
rst two decades of the 21st century, the number of people under correctional
supervision in this country—not just the number of people who have been
convicted and sent to prison—started to skyrocket during the 1980s, and
only began to drop after 2010. Crime rates are approximately 20 percent
lower today than they were in 1980. In fact, they are near their lowest level
in 35 years. But the number of people under correctional supervision
increased almost 300% between 1980 and 2010— when it nally started to
decline. During that period, the federal prison population went from 11
incarcerated persons for every 100,000 U.S. residents to 68. Annual
spending on the federal prison system rose 600 percent, from $970 million to
more than $6.7 billion in ination-adjusted dollars. States, like the federal
government, recorded sharp increases in incarceration and corrections costs
over the three 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now?
https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 1/15 decades from 1980 to 2010.
Numbers like these show that the era of mass incarceration, created a
widescale reliance on the use of imprisonment to address the nation’s
problems. By the turn of the 21st century, the provision of correctional
services of all kinds had become a major strain on government budgets at all
levels. Page 4 Today, progress is being made in bringing imprisonment rates
down. By 2020, the imprisonment rate at the federal level had fallen to 43
persons out of every 100,000 U.S. residents—and it continues to decline. In
just one year (between 2019 and 2020), federal prisons showed a 40%
decrease in new admissions. State prisons showed similar declines, with the
largest percentage declines in admissions in California, which had 66% fewer
admissions in 2020 than in 2019, and in New York where admissions to
prison decreased by 60%. Although some of the decline in prison admissions
was the result of new government policies, the bulk of it was due to the fact
that courts across the country altered their operations during the COVID
epidemic, leading to delays in trials and the sentencing of persons. Alongside
fewer admissions, there have also been increases in the number of persons
released from prison, but when viewed historically American prison
populations continue to be extraordinarily high ( Exhibit 1-1). Critics of
today’s continued high rates of imprisonment sometimes refer to our country
as a carceral state. The term carceral state implies that government power is
being used to incapacitate, incarcerate, detain, or otherwise limit the
physical freedom of vast numbers of people, extending far beyond that
necessary to ensure a safe and just society. Of course, the words “safe” and
“just” are critical and reveal that social justice concerns need to be balanced
with public safety in determining appropriate levels of incapacitation not only
in the United States but in any society. Those who support the widespread
use of incarceration argue that public safety can be assured only through
incapacitation of those who are dangerous. But “dangerousness” can be a
slippery concept when applied to social activity that may 3 1/26/25, 4:40 PM
The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now? https://prod.reader-
ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 2/15 not physically harm others
directly—as when those who use (or even trac in) illicit drugs are arrested
and prosecuted. Nora Krinitsky, Director of the Carceral State Project at the
University of Michigan, says, “The term carceral state often calls to mind
institutions of connement like jails, detention centers, prisons, but … it also
comprises a wide range of policies, practices, and institutions that scrutinize
individuals and communities both before and after their contact with the
criminal justice system.” We might also add that, in a true carceral state, the
justice system employs millions of men and women who directly depend
upon high rates of imprisonment and detention to earn a living. 4 1/26/25,
4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now? https://prod.reader-
ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 3/15 EXHIBIT 1–1 The Growth of
Imprisonment in the United States Page 5 Source: Bureau of Justice Statistics
1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now?
https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 4/15 The question that needs to be
answered is, “Why?” Why did the American correctional population increase
so dramatically in recent decades even in the face of declining crime rates?
And why is the United States still in the midst of an era of mass
incarceration? The answer to these questions, like the answers to most
societal enigmas, is far from simple, and it has a number of dimensions. We
identify four such dimensions in the material that follows. First, it is
important to recognize that get-tough-on-crime laws, such as the
threestrikes (and two-strikes) laws that were enacted in many states during
the mid1990s, fueled rapid increases in prison populations. The conservative
attitudes that gave birth to those laws are still largely with us, and much of
the increase in state prison populations has come from imprisoning more
people for violent crimes for longer periods of time. At the federal level, the
Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 encouraged longer
prison sentences for more crimes and led to the adoption of harsher
sentencing regimes throughout the nation. A second reason that correctional
populations increased rapidly during the 1990s and the decade that followed
can be found in the Twentieth Century’s War on Drugs. The War on Drugs led
to the arrest and conviction of many people, resulting in larger correctional
populations in nearly every jurisdiction (especially within the federal
correctional system). The congressional Colson Task Force on Federal
Corrections, which issued its report ten years ago, found that “The biggest
driver of growth” in the federal prison population was “federally sentenced
drug oenders, almost all of whom were convicted of drug tracking” (see
Exhibit 1–2 for drug arrests, and compare it with Exhibit 1–1 to see the
impact of drug arrests on prison populations). Many drug arrestees—
especially trackers—are sentenced to lengthy prison terms, further
increasing the number of people in prison, and many such people have
multiple convictions, including use (or possession) of a rearm during a drug
transaction. So although today’s drive to legalize marijuana and other
previously illicit substances may lead to fewer imprisoned persons in the
future, the last century’s War on Drugs goes a long way 5 6 1/26/25, 4:40 PM
The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now? https://prod.reader-
ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 5/15 toward explaining the historical
growth in correctional populations even while the rate of “serious crime” in
the United States was declining. 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where
Do We Go Now?
https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 6/15 EXHIBIT 1–2 U.S. Drug Arrests,
1980–2020. Page 6 Source: Bureau of Justice Statistics. 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The
Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now? https://prod.reader-
ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 7/15 Third, parole authorities became
increasingly reluctant to release people on parole for fear of the civil liability
that they could face should those people commit new crimes. This
contributed to a further expansion of prison populations. Fourth, as some
observers have noted, the corrections boom created its own growth dynamic.
As ever increasing numbers of people were placed on probation, the
likelihood of probation violations increased. Prison sentences for more and
more violators resulted in larger prison populations. When people who have
been in prison are released, they swell the numbers of those on parole,
leading to a larger number of parole violations, which in turn can still fuel
further prison growth. Statistics show that the number of persons convicted
of violating the criminal law and then sent to prison for at least the second
time has increased steadily, accounting for approximately 35 percent of the
total number of admissions. One analysis of the dramatic increase in
imprisonment, found that it “was not driven by a centralized national-level
strategy for dealing with crime and was not based on a coherent body of
empirical knowledge demonstrating that prisons improved public safety.”
Instead, said the report, “it was the product of layers of legislative decisions,
primarily enacted at the state level, to charge and imprison more oenders,
increase sentences, limit prison releases, and expand” prison capacity. These
decisions led to a new era in which prisons became primary weapons in what
was then seen as the nation’s war on drugs and on crime. 7 8 1/26/25, 4:40
PM The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now? https://prod.reader-
ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 8/15 U.S. correctional populations
have grown dramatically over the past 40 years, as this image of
incarcerated persons living in a modified gymnasium at the Mule Creek State
Prison in Ione, California, illustrates. What factors led to a substantial
increase in the use of imprisonment in this country beginning in the 1980s?
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do
We Go Now?
https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 9/15 Turning the Corner in U.S. Prison
Populations While get-tough-on-crime attitudes continue to persist among
signicant segments of American society today, they have largely been
trumped by economic realities. State budgets have been hard pressed to
continue funding prison expansion, and the number of people behind bars
began to show a slow decline beginning around 2010. Alternatives to
imprisonment, most of which will be discussed in coming chapters, are many
and include probation, nes, and community service—to which people who
have been convicted are being sentenced in increasing numbers. In order to
reduce correctional expenditures even further, some states are using forms
of early release from prison, shortening time served, reducing the period of
probation or parole supervision, and shifting the responsibility of supervising
people who have been convicted to county-level governments (and away
from state responsibility). We will examine these innovations at various
places throughout this text. As states grappled with the economic realities of
reduced revenues and constrained budgets beginning in the early 2000s, it
became increasingly important to get the most “bang for the buck,” so to
speak, out of correctional programs. The realization that imprisonment had
become too expensive, combined with a number of other factors, led to a
decline in prison populations. Other reasons for the decline include: 1.
Criminal justice reform policies—Many states have enacted policies aimed at
reducing the use of imprisonment and promoting alternatives to
incarceration, such as drug courts and community supervision programs. 2. A
decrease in crime rates—In recent years, crime rates in the United States
have generally been declining (contrary to what the popular media might
depict), which has contributed to a reduction in the number of people being
sentenced to prison. 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do We Go
Now? https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 10/15 Page 7 In her incoming
presidential address to the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences, Melissa
Hickman Barlow outlined a plan for the implementation of sustainable
justice. Barlow dened sustainable justice as “criminal laws and criminal
justice institutions, policies, and practices that achieve justice in the present
without compromising the ability of future generations to have the benets of
a just society.” Barlow’s call for aordable justice, based on principles and
operating practices that can be carried into the future without bankrupting
generations yet to come, represents an important turning point in our
nation’s approach to corrections and other justice institutions. These and
other factors have contributed to a reduction in the number of people being
incarcerated in the United States and a growing recognition of the need to
adopt evidence-based policies. As we will see in the next chapter, the
evidencebased movement in corrections seeks to evaluate programs and
services to see which are the most eective relative to their costs. Evidence-
based practices play an important role in correctional administration today—
and should contribute much to the call for sustainable justice and continue to
contribute to a decline in the use of imprisonment. 3. Reforms to sentencing
laws—Some states have passed laws to reduce mandatory minimum
sentences and provide greater discretion to judges in imposing sentences,
which has, in turn, led to fewer people being sentenced to long prison terms.
4. Decarceration initiatives—In response to overcrowding, budget
constraints, and public pressure, some states have implemented initiatives
to safely reduce their prison populations, such as early release programs and
parole reforms. 5. Changes in drug enforcement policies—Some states have
adopted reforms to their drug enforcement policies, such as reducing
sentences for drug oenses and expanding access to treatment, all of which
have reduced the number of people incarcerated for drug-related crimes. 9
1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now?
https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 11/15 Correctional Employment As
correctional populations peaked, increasing budgets led to a dramatically
expanding correctional workforce and enhanced employment opportunities
within the eld. Much of that momentum continues into the present day. In
2023, for example, the North Carolina Department of Public Safety oered a
$7,000 hiring bonus for new correctional ocers (COs), and the Tennessee
Department of Corrections provided a $5,000 bonus to newly hired ocers. At
the same time, the Nebraska Department of Correctional Services provided a
bonus of $15,000 for experienced COs (i.e., for those at the rank of corporal
or higher) who were willing to work at the Nebraska State Penitentiary and
other select facilities. According to historical reports, persons employed in
the corrections eld totaled approximately 27,000 in 1950. By 1975, the
number had risen to about 75,000. Estimates published by the Bureau of
Labor Statistics (BLS) in 2021 show that over 400,000 government
employees throughout the United States worked in corrections, with a total
monthly payroll of around $3 billion. BLS also found that the average hourly
and annual wage for COs and jailers was $25.69 and $53,420, respectively.
Of course, supervisors and those at higher rank earned more than the
average. Similarly, those who begin work with college degrees are paid
more. Exhibit 1–3 shows some of the employment possibilities in corrections.
Page 8 10 11 12 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now?
https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 12/15 EXHIBIT 1–3 Careers in
Corrections 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now?
https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 13/15 Prisons mean jobs and can
contribute greatly to the health of local economies. Some economically
disadvantaged towns—from Tupper Lake, in the Adirondack Mountains of
upstate New York, to Edgeeld, South Carolina—recently cashed in on the
corrections industry, having successfully competed to become sites for new
prisons. Although prison populations have recently fallen, a number of states
are building new prisons to replace failing prison infrastructure with safer,
more secure facilities that accommodate the rehabilitation of incarcerated
people. In 2021, for example, the state of Alabama announced the planned
construction of two new correctional facilities to be built on state-owned
land. The two new facilities, each designed to hold 4,000 persons in
connement will cost approximately $700 million to build and will contribute
about $30 million a year to the local economy. Academic teacher Activity
therapy administrator Business manager Case manager Chaplain Chemical
dependency manager Children’s services counselor Classication ocer Clinical
social worker Correctional ocer Dietary ocer Drug court coordinator Field
administrator Fugitive apprehension ocer Human services counselor Job
placement ocer Mental health clinician Parole caseworker Parole ocer
Presentence investigator Probation ocer Program ocer Program specialist
Programmer/analyst Psychologist Recreation coordinator Social worker
Statistician Substance abuse counselor Unit leader Victim advocate
Vocational instructor Warden/superintendent Youth services coordinator
Youth supervisor 13 14 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do We
Go Now? https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-
uuid-3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 14/15 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The
Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now? https://prod.reader-
ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 15/15
CO1-1 THE CARCERAL STATE: WHERE DO WE GO NOW? One amazing fact
stands out from all the contemporary information about American
corrections: While serious crime in the United States consistently declined
throughout much of the 1990s, and while such declines continued into the
rst two decades of the 21st century, the number of people under correctional
supervision in this country—not just the number of people who have been
convicted and sent to prison—started to skyrocket during the 1980s, and
only began to drop after 2010. Crime rates are approximately 20 percent
lower today than they were in 1980. In fact, they are near their lowest level
in 35 years. But the number of people under correctional supervision
increased almost 300% between 1980 and 2010— when it nally started to
decline. During that period, the federal prison population went from 11
incarcerated persons for every 100,000 U.S. residents to 68. Annual
spending on the federal prison system rose 600 percent, from $970 million to
more than $6.7 billion in ination-adjusted dollars. States, like the federal
government, recorded sharp increases in incarceration and corrections costs
over the three 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now?
https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 1/15 decades from 1980 to 2010.
Numbers like these show that the era of mass incarceration, created a
widescale reliance on the use of imprisonment to address the nation’s
problems. By the turn of the 21st century, the provision of correctional
services of all kinds had become a major strain on government budgets at all
levels. Page 4 Today, progress is being made in bringing imprisonment rates
down. By 2020, the imprisonment rate at the federal level had fallen to 43
persons out of every 100,000 U.S. residents—and it continues to decline. In
just one year (between 2019 and 2020), federal prisons showed a 40%
decrease in new admissions. State prisons showed similar declines, with the
largest percentage declines in admissions in California, which had 66% fewer
admissions in 2020 than in 2019, and in New York where admissions to
prison decreased by 60%. Although some of the decline in prison admissions
was the result of new government policies, the bulk of it was due to the fact
that courts across the country altered their operations during the COVID
epidemic, leading to delays in trials and the sentencing of persons. Alongside
fewer admissions, there have also been increases in the number of persons
released from prison, but when viewed historically American prison
populations continue to be extraordinarily high ( Exhibit 1-1). Critics of
today’s continued high rates of imprisonment sometimes refer to our country
as a carceral state. The term carceral state implies that government power is
being used to incapacitate, incarcerate, detain, or otherwise limit the
physical freedom of vast numbers of people, extending far beyond that
necessary to ensure a safe and just society. Of course, the words “safe” and
“just” are critical and reveal that social justice concerns need to be balanced
with public safety in determining appropriate levels of incapacitation not only
in the United States but in any society. Those who support the widespread
use of incarceration argue that public safety can be assured only through
incapacitation of those who are dangerous. But “dangerousness” can be a
slippery concept when applied to social activity that may 3 1/26/25, 4:40 PM
The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now? https://prod.reader-
ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 2/15 not physically harm others
directly—as when those who use (or even trac in) illicit drugs are arrested
and prosecuted. Nora Krinitsky, Director of the Carceral State Project at the
University of Michigan, says, “The term carceral state often calls to mind
institutions of connement like jails, detention centers, prisons, but … it also
comprises a wide range of policies, practices, and institutions that scrutinize
individuals and communities both before and after their contact with the
criminal justice system.” We might also add that, in a true carceral state, the
justice system employs millions of men and women who directly depend
upon high rates of imprisonment and detention to earn a living. 4 1/26/25,
4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now? https://prod.reader-
ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 3/15 EXHIBIT 1–1 The Growth of
Imprisonment in the United States Page 5 Source: Bureau of Justice Statistics
1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now?
https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 4/15 The question that needs to be
answered is, “Why?” Why did the American correctional population increase
so dramatically in recent decades even in the face of declining crime rates?
And why is the United States still in the midst of an era of mass
incarceration? The answer to these questions, like the answers to most
societal enigmas, is far from simple, and it has a number of dimensions. We
identify four such dimensions in the material that follows. First, it is
important to recognize that get-tough-on-crime laws, such as the
threestrikes (and two-strikes) laws that were enacted in many states during
the mid1990s, fueled rapid increases in prison populations. The conservative
attitudes that gave birth to those laws are still largely with us, and much of
the increase in state prison populations has come from imprisoning more
people for violent crimes for longer periods of time. At the federal level, the
Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 encouraged longer
prison sentences for more crimes and led to the adoption of harsher
sentencing regimes throughout the nation. A second reason that correctional
populations increased rapidly during the 1990s and the decade that followed
can be found in the Twentieth Century’s War on Drugs. The War on Drugs led
to the arrest and conviction of many people, resulting in larger correctional
populations in nearly every jurisdiction (especially within the federal
correctional system). The congressional Colson Task Force on Federal
Corrections, which issued its report ten years ago, found that “The biggest
driver of growth” in the federal prison population was “federally sentenced
drug oenders, almost all of whom were convicted of drug tracking” (see
Exhibit 1–2 for drug arrests, and compare it with Exhibit 1–1 to see the
impact of drug arrests on prison populations). Many drug arrestees—
especially trackers—are sentenced to lengthy prison terms, further
increasing the number of people in prison, and many such people have
multiple convictions, including use (or possession) of a rearm during a drug
transaction. So although today’s drive to legalize marijuana and other
previously illicit substances may lead to fewer imprisoned persons in the
future, the last century’s War on Drugs goes a long way 5 6 1/26/25, 4:40 PM
The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now? https://prod.reader-
ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 5/15 toward explaining the historical
growth in correctional populations even while the rate of “serious crime” in
the United States was declining. 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where
Do We Go Now?
https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 6/15 EXHIBIT 1–2 U.S. Drug Arrests,
1980–2020. Page 6 Source: Bureau of Justice Statistics. 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The
Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now? https://prod.reader-
ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 7/15 Third, parole authorities became
increasingly reluctant to release people on parole for fear of the civil liability
that they could face should those people commit new crimes. This
contributed to a further expansion of prison populations. Fourth, as some
observers have noted, the corrections boom created its own growth dynamic.
As ever increasing numbers of people were placed on probation, the
likelihood of probation violations increased. Prison sentences for more and
more violators resulted in larger prison populations. When people who have
been in prison are released, they swell the numbers of those on parole,
leading to a larger number of parole violations, which in turn can still fuel
further prison growth. Statistics show that the number of persons convicted
of violating the criminal law and then sent to prison for at least the second
time has increased steadily, accounting for approximately 35 percent of the
total number of admissions. One analysis of the dramatic increase in
imprisonment, found that it “was not driven by a centralized national-level
strategy for dealing with crime and was not based on a coherent body of
empirical knowledge demonstrating that prisons improved public safety.”
Instead, said the report, “it was the product of layers of legislative decisions,
primarily enacted at the state level, to charge and imprison more oenders,
increase sentences, limit prison releases, and expand” prison capacity. These
decisions led to a new era in which prisons became primary weapons in what
was then seen as the nation’s war on drugs and on crime. 7 8 1/26/25, 4:40
PM The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now? https://prod.reader-
ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 8/15 U.S. correctional populations
have grown dramatically over the past 40 years, as this image of
incarcerated persons living in a modified gymnasium at the Mule Creek State
Prison in Ione, California, illustrates. What factors led to a substantial
increase in the use of imprisonment in this country beginning in the 1980s?
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do
We Go Now?
https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 9/15 Turning the Corner in U.S. Prison
Populations While get-tough-on-crime attitudes continue to persist among
signicant segments of American society today, they have largely been
trumped by economic realities. State budgets have been hard pressed to
continue funding prison expansion, and the number of people behind bars
began to show a slow decline beginning around 2010. Alternatives to
imprisonment, most of which will be discussed in coming chapters, are many
and include probation, nes, and community service—to which people who
have been convicted are being sentenced in increasing numbers. In order to
reduce correctional expenditures even further, some states are using forms
of early release from prison, shortening time served, reducing the period of
probation or parole supervision, and shifting the responsibility of supervising
people who have been convicted to county-level governments (and away
from state responsibility). We will examine these innovations at various
places throughout this text. As states grappled with the economic realities of
reduced revenues and constrained budgets beginning in the early 2000s, it
became increasingly important to get the most “bang for the buck,” so to
speak, out of correctional programs. The realization that imprisonment had
become too expensive, combined with a number of other factors, led to a
decline in prison populations. Other reasons for the decline include: 1.
Criminal justice reform policies—Many states have enacted policies aimed at
reducing the use of imprisonment and promoting alternatives to
incarceration, such as drug courts and community supervision programs. 2. A
decrease in crime rates—In recent years, crime rates in the United States
have generally been declining (contrary to what the popular media might
depict), which has contributed to a reduction in the number of people being
sentenced to prison. 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do We Go
Now? https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 10/15 Page 7 In her incoming
presidential address to the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences, Melissa
Hickman Barlow outlined a plan for the implementation of sustainable
justice. Barlow dened sustainable justice as “criminal laws and criminal
justice institutions, policies, and practices that achieve justice in the present
without compromising the ability of future generations to have the benets of
a just society.” Barlow’s call for aordable justice, based on principles and
operating practices that can be carried into the future without bankrupting
generations yet to come, represents an important turning point in our
nation’s approach to corrections and other justice institutions. These and
other factors have contributed to a reduction in the number of people being
incarcerated in the United States and a growing recognition of the need to
adopt evidence-based policies. As we will see in the next chapter, the
evidencebased movement in corrections seeks to evaluate programs and
services to see which are the most eective relative to their costs. Evidence-
based practices play an important role in correctional administration today—
and should contribute much to the call for sustainable justice and continue to
contribute to a decline in the use of imprisonment. 3. Reforms to sentencing
laws—Some states have passed laws to reduce mandatory minimum
sentences and provide greater discretion to judges in imposing sentences,
which has, in turn, led to fewer people being sentenced to long prison terms.
4. Decarceration initiatives—In response to overcrowding, budget
constraints, and public pressure, some states have implemented initiatives
to safely reduce their prison populations, such as early release programs and
parole reforms. 5. Changes in drug enforcement policies—Some states have
adopted reforms to their drug enforcement policies, such as reducing
sentences for drug oenses and expanding access to treatment, all of which
have reduced the number of people incarcerated for drug-related crimes. 9
1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now?
https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 11/15 Correctional Employment As
correctional populations peaked, increasing budgets led to a dramatically
expanding correctional workforce and enhanced employment opportunities
within the eld. Much of that momentum continues into the present day. In
2023, for example, the North Carolina Department of Public Safety oered a
$7,000 hiring bonus for new correctional ocers (COs), and the Tennessee
Department of Corrections provided a $5,000 bonus to newly hired ocers. At
the same time, the Nebraska Department of Correctional Services provided a
bonus of $15,000 for experienced COs (i.e., for those at the rank of corporal
or higher) who were willing to work at the Nebraska State Penitentiary and
other select facilities. According to historical reports, persons employed in
the corrections eld totaled approximately 27,000 in 1950. By 1975, the
number had risen to about 75,000. Estimates published by the Bureau of
Labor Statistics (BLS) in 2021 show that over 400,000 government
employees throughout the United States worked in corrections, with a total
monthly payroll of around $3 billion. BLS also found that the average hourly
and annual wage for COs and jailers was $25.69 and $53,420, respectively.
Of course, supervisors and those at higher rank earned more than the
average. Similarly, those who begin work with college degrees are paid
more. Exhibit 1–3 shows some of the employment possibilities in corrections.
Page 8 10 11 12 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now?
https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 12/15 EXHIBIT 1–3 Careers in
Corrections 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now?
https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 13/15 Prisons mean jobs and can
contribute greatly to the health of local economies. Some economically
disadvantaged towns—from Tupper Lake, in the Adirondack Mountains of
upstate New York, to Edgeeld, South Carolina—recently cashed in on the
corrections industry, having successfully competed to become sites for new
prisons. Although prison populations have recently fallen, a number of states
are building new prisons to replace failing prison infrastructure with safer,
more secure facilities that accommodate the rehabilitation of incarcerated
people. In 2021, for example, the state of Alabama announced the planned
construction of two new correctional facilities to be built on state-owned
land. The two new facilities, each designed to hold 4,000 persons in
connement will cost approximately $700 million to build and will contribute
about $30 million a year to the local economy. Academic teacher Activity
therapy administrator Business manager Case manager Chaplain Chemical
dependency manager Children’s services counselor Classication ocer Clinical
social worker Correctional ocer Dietary ocer Drug court coordinator Field
administrator Fugitive apprehension ocer Human services counselor Job
placement ocer Mental health clinician Parole caseworker Parole ocer
Presentence investigator Probation ocer Program ocer Program specialist
Programmer/analyst Psychologist Recreation coordinator Social worker
Statistician Substance abuse counselor Unit leader Victim advocate
Vocational instructor Warden/superintendent Youth services coordinator
Youth supervisor 13 14 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do We
Go Now? https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-
uuid-3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 14/15 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The
Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now? https://prod.reader-
ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 15/15
CO1-1 THE CARCERAL STATE: WHERE DO WE GO NOW? One amazing fact
stands out from all the contemporary information about American
corrections: While serious crime in the United States consistently declined
throughout much of the 1990s, and while such declines continued into the
rst two decades of the 21st century, the number of people under correctional
supervision in this country—not just the number of people who have been
convicted and sent to prison—started to skyrocket during the 1980s, and
only began to drop after 2010. Crime rates are approximately 20 percent
lower today than they were in 1980. In fact, they are near their lowest level
in 35 years. But the number of people under correctional supervision
increased almost 300% between 1980 and 2010— when it nally started to
decline. During that period, the federal prison population went from 11
incarcerated persons for every 100,000 U.S. residents to 68. Annual
spending on the federal prison system rose 600 percent, from $970 million to
more than $6.7 billion in ination-adjusted dollars. States, like the federal
government, recorded sharp increases in incarceration and corrections costs
over the three 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now?
https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 1/15 decades from 1980 to 2010.
Numbers like these show that the era of mass incarceration, created a
widescale reliance on the use of imprisonment to address the nation’s
problems. By the turn of the 21st century, the provision of correctional
services of all kinds had become a major strain on government budgets at all
levels. Page 4 Today, progress is being made in bringing imprisonment rates
down. By 2020, the imprisonment rate at the federal level had fallen to 43
persons out of every 100,000 U.S. residents—and it continues to decline. In
just one year (between 2019 and 2020), federal prisons showed a 40%
decrease in new admissions. State prisons showed similar declines, with the
largest percentage declines in admissions in California, which had 66% fewer
admissions in 2020 than in 2019, and in New York where admissions to
prison decreased by 60%. Although some of the decline in prison admissions
was the result of new government policies, the bulk of it was due to the fact
that courts across the country altered their operations during the COVID
epidemic, leading to delays in trials and the sentencing of persons. Alongside
fewer admissions, there have also been increases in the number of persons
released from prison, but when viewed historically American prison
populations continue to be extraordinarily high ( Exhibit 1-1). Critics of
today’s continued high rates of imprisonment sometimes refer to our country
as a carceral state. The term carceral state implies that government power is
being used to incapacitate, incarcerate, detain, or otherwise limit the
physical freedom of vast numbers of people, extending far beyond that
necessary to ensure a safe and just society. Of course, the words “safe” and
“just” are critical and reveal that social justice concerns need to be balanced
with public safety in determining appropriate levels of incapacitation not only
in the United States but in any society. Those who support the widespread
use of incarceration argue that public safety can be assured only through
incapacitation of those who are dangerous. But “dangerousness” can be a
slippery concept when applied to social activity that may 3 1/26/25, 4:40 PM
The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now? https://prod.reader-
ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 2/15 not physically harm others
directly—as when those who use (or even trac in) illicit drugs are arrested
and prosecuted. Nora Krinitsky, Director of the Carceral State Project at the
University of Michigan, says, “The term carceral state often calls to mind
institutions of connement like jails, detention centers, prisons, but … it also
comprises a wide range of policies, practices, and institutions that scrutinize
individuals and communities both before and after their contact with the
criminal justice system.” We might also add that, in a true carceral state, the
justice system employs millions of men and women who directly depend
upon high rates of imprisonment and detention to earn a living. 4 1/26/25,
4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now? https://prod.reader-
ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 3/15 EXHIBIT 1–1 The Growth of
Imprisonment in the United States Page 5 Source: Bureau of Justice Statistics
1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now?
https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 4/15 The question that needs to be
answered is, “Why?” Why did the American correctional population increase
so dramatically in recent decades even in the face of declining crime rates?
And why is the United States still in the midst of an era of mass
incarceration? The answer to these questions, like the answers to most
societal enigmas, is far from simple, and it has a number of dimensions. We
identify four such dimensions in the material that follows. First, it is
important to recognize that get-tough-on-crime laws, such as the
threestrikes (and two-strikes) laws that were enacted in many states during
the mid1990s, fueled rapid increases in prison populations. The conservative
attitudes that gave birth to those laws are still largely with us, and much of
the increase in state prison populations has come from imprisoning more
people for violent crimes for longer periods of time. At the federal level, the
Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 encouraged longer
prison sentences for more crimes and led to the adoption of harsher
sentencing regimes throughout the nation. A second reason that correctional
populations increased rapidly during the 1990s and the decade that followed
can be found in the Twentieth Century’s War on Drugs. The War on Drugs led
to the arrest and conviction of many people, resulting in larger correctional
populations in nearly every jurisdiction (especially within the federal
correctional system). The congressional Colson Task Force on Federal
Corrections, which issued its report ten years ago, found that “The biggest
driver of growth” in the federal prison population was “federally sentenced
drug oenders, almost all of whom were convicted of drug tracking” (see
Exhibit 1–2 for drug arrests, and compare it with Exhibit 1–1 to see the
impact of drug arrests on prison populations). Many drug arrestees—
especially trackers—are sentenced to lengthy prison terms, further
increasing the number of people in prison, and many such people have
multiple convictions, including use (or possession) of a rearm during a drug
transaction. So although today’s drive to legalize marijuana and other
previously illicit substances may lead to fewer imprisoned persons in the
future, the last century’s War on Drugs goes a long way 5 6 1/26/25, 4:40 PM
The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now? https://prod.reader-
ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 5/15 toward explaining the historical
growth in correctional populations even while the rate of “serious crime” in
the United States was declining. 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where
Do We Go Now?
https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 6/15 EXHIBIT 1–2 U.S. Drug Arrests,
1980–2020. Page 6 Source: Bureau of Justice Statistics. 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The
Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now? https://prod.reader-
ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 7/15 Third, parole authorities became
increasingly reluctant to release people on parole for fear of the civil liability
that they could face should those people commit new crimes. This
contributed to a further expansion of prison populations. Fourth, as some
observers have noted, the corrections boom created its own growth dynamic.
As ever increasing numbers of people were placed on probation, the
likelihood of probation violations increased. Prison sentences for more and
more violators resulted in larger prison populations. When people who have
been in prison are released, they swell the numbers of those on parole,
leading to a larger number of parole violations, which in turn can still fuel
further prison growth. Statistics show that the number of persons convicted
of violating the criminal law and then sent to prison for at least the second
time has increased steadily, accounting for approximately 35 percent of the
total number of admissions. One analysis of the dramatic increase in
imprisonment, found that it “was not driven by a centralized national-level
strategy for dealing with crime and was not based on a coherent body of
empirical knowledge demonstrating that prisons improved public safety.”
Instead, said the report, “it was the product of layers of legislative decisions,
primarily enacted at the state level, to charge and imprison more oenders,
increase sentences, limit prison releases, and expand” prison capacity. These
decisions led to a new era in which prisons became primary weapons in what
was then seen as the nation’s war on drugs and on crime. 7 8 1/26/25, 4:40
PM The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now? https://prod.reader-
ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 8/15 U.S. correctional populations
have grown dramatically over the past 40 years, as this image of
incarcerated persons living in a modified gymnasium at the Mule Creek State
Prison in Ione, California, illustrates. What factors led to a substantial
increase in the use of imprisonment in this country beginning in the 1980s?
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do
We Go Now?
https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 9/15 Turning the Corner in U.S. Prison
Populations While get-tough-on-crime attitudes continue to persist among
signicant segments of American society today, they have largely been
trumped by economic realities. State budgets have been hard pressed to
continue funding prison expansion, and the number of people behind bars
began to show a slow decline beginning around 2010. Alternatives to
imprisonment, most of which will be discussed in coming chapters, are many
and include probation, nes, and community service—to which people who
have been convicted are being sentenced in increasing numbers. In order to
reduce correctional expenditures even further, some states are using forms
of early release from prison, shortening time served, reducing the period of
probation or parole supervision, and shifting the responsibility of supervising
people who have been convicted to county-level governments (and away
from state responsibility). We will examine these innovations at various
places throughout this text. As states grappled with the economic realities of
reduced revenues and constrained budgets beginning in the early 2000s, it
became increasingly important to get the most “bang for the buck,” so to
speak, out of correctional programs. The realization that imprisonment had
become too expensive, combined with a number of other factors, led to a
decline in prison populations. Other reasons for the decline include: 1.
Criminal justice reform policies—Many states have enacted policies aimed at
reducing the use of imprisonment and promoting alternatives to
incarceration, such as drug courts and community supervision programs. 2. A
decrease in crime rates—In recent years, crime rates in the United States
have generally been declining (contrary to what the popular media might
depict), which has contributed to a reduction in the number of people being
sentenced to prison. 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do We Go
Now? https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 10/15 Page 7 In her incoming
presidential address to the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences, Melissa
Hickman Barlow outlined a plan for the implementation of sustainable
justice. Barlow dened sustainable justice as “criminal laws and criminal
justice institutions, policies, and practices that achieve justice in the present
without compromising the ability of future generations to have the benets of
a just society.” Barlow’s call for aordable justice, based on principles and
operating practices that can be carried into the future without bankrupting
generations yet to come, represents an important turning point in our
nation’s approach to corrections and other justice institutions. These and
other factors have contributed to a reduction in the number of people being
incarcerated in the United States and a growing recognition of the need to
adopt evidence-based policies. As we will see in the next chapter, the
evidencebased movement in corrections seeks to evaluate programs and
services to see which are the most eective relative to their costs. Evidence-
based practices play an important role in correctional administration today—
and should contribute much to the call for sustainable justice and continue to
contribute to a decline in the use of imprisonment. 3. Reforms to sentencing
laws—Some states have passed laws to reduce mandatory minimum
sentences and provide greater discretion to judges in imposing sentences,
which has, in turn, led to fewer people being sentenced to long prison terms.
4. Decarceration initiatives—In response to overcrowding, budget
constraints, and public pressure, some states have implemented initiatives
to safely reduce their prison populations, such as early release programs and
parole reforms. 5. Changes in drug enforcement policies—Some states have
adopted reforms to their drug enforcement policies, such as reducing
sentences for drug oenses and expanding access to treatment, all of which
have reduced the number of people incarcerated for drug-related crimes. 9
1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now?
https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 11/15 Correctional Employment As
correctional populations peaked, increasing budgets led to a dramatically
expanding correctional workforce and enhanced employment opportunities
within the eld. Much of that momentum continues into the present day. In
2023, for example, the North Carolina Department of Public Safety oered a
$7,000 hiring bonus for new correctional ocers (COs), and the Tennessee
Department of Corrections provided a $5,000 bonus to newly hired ocers. At
the same time, the Nebraska Department of Correctional Services provided a
bonus of $15,000 for experienced COs (i.e., for those at the rank of corporal
or higher) who were willing to work at the Nebraska State Penitentiary and
other select facilities. According to historical reports, persons employed in
the corrections eld totaled approximately 27,000 in 1950. By 1975, the
number had risen to about 75,000. Estimates published by the Bureau of
Labor Statistics (BLS) in 2021 show that over 400,000 government
employees throughout the United States worked in corrections, with a total
monthly payroll of around $3 billion. BLS also found that the average hourly
and annual wage for COs and jailers was $25.69 and $53,420, respectively.
Of course, supervisors and those at higher rank earned more than the
average. Similarly, those who begin work with college degrees are paid
more. Exhibit 1–3 shows some of the employment possibilities in corrections.
Page 8 10 11 12 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now?
https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 12/15 EXHIBIT 1–3 Careers in
Corrections 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now?
https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 13/15 Prisons mean jobs and can
contribute greatly to the health of local economies. Some economically
disadvantaged towns—from Tupper Lake, in the Adirondack Mountains of
upstate New York, to Edgeeld, South Carolina—recently cashed in on the
corrections industry, having successfully competed to become sites for new
prisons. Although prison populations have recently fallen, a number of states
are building new prisons to replace failing prison infrastructure with safer,
more secure facilities that accommodate the rehabilitation of incarcerated
people. In 2021, for example, the state of Alabama announced the planned
construction of two new correctional facilities to be built on state-owned
land. The two new facilities, each designed to hold 4,000 persons in
connement will cost approximately $700 million to build and will contribute
about $30 million a year to the local economy. Academic teacher Activity
therapy administrator Business manager Case manager Chaplain Chemical
dependency manager Children’s services counselor Classication ocer Clinical
social worker Correctional ocer Dietary ocer Drug court coordinator Field
administrator Fugitive apprehension ocer Human services counselor Job
placement ocer Mental health clinician Parole caseworker Parole ocer
Presentence investigator Probation ocer Program ocer Program specialist
Programmer/analyst Psychologist Recreation coordinator Social worker
Statistician Substance abuse counselor Unit leader Victim advocate
Vocational instructor Warden/superintendent Youth services coordinator
Youth supervisor 13 14 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do We
Go Now? https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-
uuid-3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 14/15 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The
Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now? https://prod.reader-
ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 15/15
CO1-1 THE CARCERAL STATE: WHERE DO WE GO NOW? One amazing fact
stands out from all the contemporary information about American
corrections: While serious crime in the United States consistently declined
throughout much of the 1990s, and while such declines continued into the
rst two decades of the 21st century, the number of people under correctional
supervision in this country—not just the number of people who have been
convicted and sent to prison—started to skyrocket during the 1980s, and
only began to drop after 2010. Crime rates are approximately 20 percent
lower today than they were in 1980. In fact, they are near their lowest level
in 35 years. But the number of people under correctional supervision
increased almost 300% between 1980 and 2010— when it nally started to
decline. During that period, the federal prison population went from 11
incarcerated persons for every 100,000 U.S. residents to 68. Annual
spending on the federal prison system rose 600 percent, from $970 million to
more than $6.7 billion in ination-adjusted dollars. States, like the federal
government, recorded sharp increases in incarceration and corrections costs
over the three 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now?
https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 1/15 decades from 1980 to 2010.
Numbers like these show that the era of mass incarceration, created a
widescale reliance on the use of imprisonment to address the nation’s
problems. By the turn of the 21st century, the provision of correctional
services of all kinds had become a major strain on government budgets at all
levels. Page 4 Today, progress is being made in bringing imprisonment rates
down. By 2020, the imprisonment rate at the federal level had fallen to 43
persons out of every 100,000 U.S. residents—and it continues to decline. In
just one year (between 2019 and 2020), federal prisons showed a 40%
decrease in new admissions. State prisons showed similar declines, with the
largest percentage declines in admissions in California, which had 66% fewer
admissions in 2020 than in 2019, and in New York where admissions to
prison decreased by 60%. Although some of the decline in prison admissions
was the result of new government policies, the bulk of it was due to the fact
that courts across the country altered their operations during the COVID
epidemic, leading to delays in trials and the sentencing of persons. Alongside
fewer admissions, there have also been increases in the number of persons
released from prison, but when viewed historically American prison
populations continue to be extraordinarily high ( Exhibit 1-1). Critics of
today’s continued high rates of imprisonment sometimes refer to our country
as a carceral state. The term carceral state implies that government power is
being used to incapacitate, incarcerate, detain, or otherwise limit the
physical freedom of vast numbers of people, extending far beyond that
necessary to ensure a safe and just society. Of course, the words “safe” and
“just” are critical and reveal that social justice concerns need to be balanced
with public safety in determining appropriate levels of incapacitation not only
in the United States but in any society. Those who support the widespread
use of incarceration argue that public safety can be assured only through
incapacitation of those who are dangerous. But “dangerousness” can be a
slippery concept when applied to social activity that may 3 1/26/25, 4:40 PM
The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now? https://prod.reader-
ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 2/15 not physically harm others
directly—as when those who use (or even trac in) illicit drugs are arrested
and prosecuted. Nora Krinitsky, Director of the Carceral State Project at the
University of Michigan, says, “The term carceral state often calls to mind
institutions of connement like jails, detention centers, prisons, but … it also
comprises a wide range of policies, practices, and institutions that scrutinize
individuals and communities both before and after their contact with the
criminal justice system.” We might also add that, in a true carceral state, the
justice system employs millions of men and women who directly depend
upon high rates of imprisonment and detention to earn a living. 4 1/26/25,
4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now? https://prod.reader-
ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 3/15 EXHIBIT 1–1 The Growth of
Imprisonment in the United States Page 5 Source: Bureau of Justice Statistics
1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now?
https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 4/15 The question that needs to be
answered is, “Why?” Why did the American correctional population increase
so dramatically in recent decades even in the face of declining crime rates?
And why is the United States still in the midst of an era of mass
incarceration? The answer to these questions, like the answers to most
societal enigmas, is far from simple, and it has a number of dimensions. We
identify four such dimensions in the material that follows. First, it is
important to recognize that get-tough-on-crime laws, such as the
threestrikes (and two-strikes) laws that were enacted in many states during
the mid1990s, fueled rapid increases in prison populations. The conservative
attitudes that gave birth to those laws are still largely with us, and much of
the increase in state prison populations has come from imprisoning more
people for violent crimes for longer periods of time. At the federal level, the
Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 encouraged longer
prison sentences for more crimes and led to the adoption of harsher
sentencing regimes throughout the nation. A second reason that correctional
populations increased rapidly during the 1990s and the decade that followed
can be found in the Twentieth Century’s War on Drugs. The War on Drugs led
to the arrest and conviction of many people, resulting in larger correctional
populations in nearly every jurisdiction (especially within the federal
correctional system). The congressional Colson Task Force on Federal
Corrections, which issued its report ten years ago, found that “The biggest
driver of growth” in the federal prison population was “federally sentenced
drug oenders, almost all of whom were convicted of drug tracking” (see
Exhibit 1–2 for drug arrests, and compare it with Exhibit 1–1 to see the
impact of drug arrests on prison populations). Many drug arrestees—
especially trackers—are sentenced to lengthy prison terms, further
increasing the number of people in prison, and many such people have
multiple convictions, including use (or possession) of a rearm during a drug
transaction. So although today’s drive to legalize marijuana and other
previously illicit substances may lead to fewer imprisoned persons in the
future, the last century’s War on Drugs goes a long way 5 6 1/26/25, 4:40 PM
The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now? https://prod.reader-
ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 5/15 toward explaining the historical
growth in correctional populations even while the rate of “serious crime” in
the United States was declining. 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where
Do We Go Now?
https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 6/15 EXHIBIT 1–2 U.S. Drug Arrests,
1980–2020. Page 6 Source: Bureau of Justice Statistics. 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The
Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now? https://prod.reader-
ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 7/15 Third, parole authorities became
increasingly reluctant to release people on parole for fear of the civil liability
that they could face should those people commit new crimes. This
contributed to a further expansion of prison populations. Fourth, as some
observers have noted, the corrections boom created its own growth dynamic.
As ever increasing numbers of people were placed on probation, the
likelihood of probation violations increased. Prison sentences for more and
more violators resulted in larger prison populations. When people who have
been in prison are released, they swell the numbers of those on parole,
leading to a larger number of parole violations, which in turn can still fuel
further prison growth. Statistics show that the number of persons convicted
of violating the criminal law and then sent to prison for at least the second
time has increased steadily, accounting for approximately 35 percent of the
total number of admissions. One analysis of the dramatic increase in
imprisonment, found that it “was not driven by a centralized national-level
strategy for dealing with crime and was not based on a coherent body of
empirical knowledge demonstrating that prisons improved public safety.”
Instead, said the report, “it was the product of layers of legislative decisions,
primarily enacted at the state level, to charge and imprison more oenders,
increase sentences, limit prison releases, and expand” prison capacity. These
decisions led to a new era in which prisons became primary weapons in what
was then seen as the nation’s war on drugs and on crime. 7 8 1/26/25, 4:40
PM The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now? https://prod.reader-
ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 8/15 U.S. correctional populations
have grown dramatically over the past 40 years, as this image of
incarcerated persons living in a modified gymnasium at the Mule Creek State
Prison in Ione, California, illustrates. What factors led to a substantial
increase in the use of imprisonment in this country beginning in the 1980s?
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do
We Go Now?
https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 9/15 Turning the Corner in U.S. Prison
Populations While get-tough-on-crime attitudes continue to persist among
signicant segments of American society today, they have largely been
trumped by economic realities. State budgets have been hard pressed to
continue funding prison expansion, and the number of people behind bars
began to show a slow decline beginning around 2010. Alternatives to
imprisonment, most of which will be discussed in coming chapters, are many
and include probation, nes, and community service—to which people who
have been convicted are being sentenced in increasing numbers. In order to
reduce correctional expenditures even further, some states are using forms
of early release from prison, shortening time served, reducing the period of
probation or parole supervision, and shifting the responsibility of supervising
people who have been convicted to county-level governments (and away
from state responsibility). We will examine these innovations at various
places throughout this text. As states grappled with the economic realities of
reduced revenues and constrained budgets beginning in the early 2000s, it
became increasingly important to get the most “bang for the buck,” so to
speak, out of correctional programs. The realization that imprisonment had
become too expensive, combined with a number of other factors, led to a
decline in prison populations. Other reasons for the decline include: 1.
Criminal justice reform policies—Many states have enacted policies aimed at
reducing the use of imprisonment and promoting alternatives to
incarceration, such as drug courts and community supervision programs. 2. A
decrease in crime rates—In recent years, crime rates in the United States
have generally been declining (contrary to what the popular media might
depict), which has contributed to a reduction in the number of people being
sentenced to prison. 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do We Go
Now? https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 10/15 Page 7 In her incoming
presidential address to the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences, Melissa
Hickman Barlow outlined a plan for the implementation of sustainable
justice. Barlow dened sustainable justice as “criminal laws and criminal
justice institutions, policies, and practices that achieve justice in the present
without compromising the ability of future generations to have the benets of
a just society.” Barlow’s call for aordable justice, based on principles and
operating practices that can be carried into the future without bankrupting
generations yet to come, represents an important turning point in our
nation’s approach to corrections and other justice institutions. These and
other factors have contributed to a reduction in the number of people being
incarcerated in the United States and a growing recognition of the need to
adopt evidence-based policies. As we will see in the next chapter, the
evidencebased movement in corrections seeks to evaluate programs and
services to see which are the most eective relative to their costs. Evidence-
based practices play an important role in correctional administration today—
and should contribute much to the call for sustainable justice and continue to
contribute to a decline in the use of imprisonment. 3. Reforms to sentencing
laws—Some states have passed laws to reduce mandatory minimum
sentences and provide greater discretion to judges in imposing sentences,
which has, in turn, led to fewer people being sentenced to long prison terms.
4. Decarceration initiatives—In response to overcrowding, budget
constraints, and public pressure, some states have implemented initiatives
to safely reduce their prison populations, such as early release programs and
parole reforms. 5. Changes in drug enforcement policies—Some states have
adopted reforms to their drug enforcement policies, such as reducing
sentences for drug oenses and expanding access to treatment, all of which
have reduced the number of people incarcerated for drug-related crimes. 9
1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now?
https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 11/15 Correctional Employment As
correctional populations peaked, increasing budgets led to a dramatically
expanding correctional workforce and enhanced employment opportunities
within the eld. Much of that momentum continues into the present day. In
2023, for example, the North Carolina Department of Public Safety oered a
$7,000 hiring bonus for new correctional ocers (COs), and the Tennessee
Department of Corrections provided a $5,000 bonus to newly hired ocers. At
the same time, the Nebraska Department of Correctional Services provided a
bonus of $15,000 for experienced COs (i.e., for those at the rank of corporal
or higher) who were willing to work at the Nebraska State Penitentiary and
other select facilities. According to historical reports, persons employed in
the corrections eld totaled approximately 27,000 in 1950. By 1975, the
number had risen to about 75,000. Estimates published by the Bureau of
Labor Statistics (BLS) in 2021 show that over 400,000 government
employees throughout the United States worked in corrections, with a total
monthly payroll of around $3 billion. BLS also found that the average hourly
and annual wage for COs and jailers was $25.69 and $53,420, respectively.
Of course, supervisors and those at higher rank earned more than the
average. Similarly, those who begin work with college degrees are paid
more. Exhibit 1–3 shows some of the employment possibilities in corrections.
Page 8 10 11 12 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now?
https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 12/15 EXHIBIT 1–3 Careers in
Corrections 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now?
https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 13/15 Prisons mean jobs and can
contribute greatly to the health of local economies. Some economically
disadvantaged towns—from Tupper Lake, in the Adirondack Mountains of
upstate New York, to Edgeeld, South Carolina—recently cashed in on the
corrections industry, having successfully competed to become sites for new
prisons. Although prison populations have recently fallen, a number of states
are building new prisons to replace failing prison infrastructure with safer,
more secure facilities that accommodate the rehabilitation of incarcerated
people. In 2021, for example, the state of Alabama announced the planned
construction of two new correctional facilities to be built on state-owned
land. The two new facilities, each designed to hold 4,000 persons in
connement will cost approximately $700 million to build and will contribute
about $30 million a year to the local economy. Academic teacher Activity
therapy administrator Business manager Case manager Chaplain Chemical
dependency manager Children’s services counselor Classication ocer Clinical
social worker Correctional ocer Dietary ocer Drug court coordinator Field
administrator Fugitive apprehension ocer Human services counselor Job
placement ocer Mental health clinician Parole caseworker Parole ocer
Presentence investigator Probation ocer Program ocer Program specialist
Programmer/analyst Psychologist Recreation coordinator Social worker
Statistician Substance abuse counselor Unit leader Victim advocate
Vocational instructor Warden/superintendent Youth services coordinator
Youth supervisor 13 14 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do We
Go Now? https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-
uuid-3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 14/15 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The
Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now? https://prod.reader-
ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 15/15
CO1-1 THE CARCERAL STATE: WHERE DO WE GO NOW? One amazing fact
stands out from all the contemporary information about American
corrections: While serious crime in the United States consistently declined
throughout much of the 1990s, and while such declines continued into the
rst two decades of the 21st century, the number of people under correctional
supervision in this country—not just the number of people who have been
convicted and sent to prison—started to skyrocket during the 1980s, and
only began to drop after 2010. Crime rates are approximately 20 percent
lower today than they were in 1980. In fact, they are near their lowest level
in 35 years. But the number of people under correctional supervision
increased almost 300% between 1980 and 2010— when it nally started to
decline. During that period, the federal prison population went from 11
incarcerated persons for every 100,000 U.S. residents to 68. Annual
spending on the federal prison system rose 600 percent, from $970 million to
more than $6.7 billion in ination-adjusted dollars. States, like the federal
government, recorded sharp increases in incarceration and corrections costs
over the three 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now?
https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 1/15 decades from 1980 to 2010.
Numbers like these show that the era of mass incarceration, created a
widescale reliance on the use of imprisonment to address the nation’s
problems. By the turn of the 21st century, the provision of correctional
services of all kinds had become a major strain on government budgets at all
levels. Page 4 Today, progress is being made in bringing imprisonment rates
down. By 2020, the imprisonment rate at the federal level had fallen to 43
persons out of every 100,000 U.S. residents—and it continues to decline. In
just one year (between 2019 and 2020), federal prisons showed a 40%
decrease in new admissions. State prisons showed similar declines, with the
largest percentage declines in admissions in California, which had 66% fewer
admissions in 2020 than in 2019, and in New York where admissions to
prison decreased by 60%. Although some of the decline in prison admissions
was the result of new government policies, the bulk of it was due to the fact
that courts across the country altered their operations during the COVID
epidemic, leading to delays in trials and the sentencing of persons. Alongside
fewer admissions, there have also been increases in the number of persons
released from prison, but when viewed historically American prison
populations continue to be extraordinarily high ( Exhibit 1-1). Critics of
today’s continued high rates of imprisonment sometimes refer to our country
as a carceral state. The term carceral state implies that government power is
being used to incapacitate, incarcerate, detain, or otherwise limit the
physical freedom of vast numbers of people, extending far beyond that
necessary to ensure a safe and just society. Of course, the words “safe” and
“just” are critical and reveal that social justice concerns need to be balanced
with public safety in determining appropriate levels of incapacitation not only
in the United States but in any society. Those who support the widespread
use of incarceration argue that public safety can be assured only through
incapacitation of those who are dangerous. But “dangerousness” can be a
slippery concept when applied to social activity that may 3 1/26/25, 4:40 PM
The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now? https://prod.reader-
ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 2/15 not physically harm others
directly—as when those who use (or even trac in) illicit drugs are arrested
and prosecuted. Nora Krinitsky, Director of the Carceral State Project at the
University of Michigan, says, “The term carceral state often calls to mind
institutions of connement like jails, detention centers, prisons, but … it also
comprises a wide range of policies, practices, and institutions that scrutinize
individuals and communities both before and after their contact with the
criminal justice system.” We might also add that, in a true carceral state, the
justice system employs millions of men and women who directly depend
upon high rates of imprisonment and detention to earn a living. 4 1/26/25,
4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now? https://prod.reader-
ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 3/15 EXHIBIT 1–1 The Growth of
Imprisonment in the United States Page 5 Source: Bureau of Justice Statistics
1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now?
https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 4/15 The question that needs to be
answered is, “Why?” Why did the American correctional population increase
so dramatically in recent decades even in the face of declining crime rates?
And why is the United States still in the midst of an era of mass
incarceration? The answer to these questions, like the answers to most
societal enigmas, is far from simple, and it has a number of dimensions. We
identify four such dimensions in the material that follows. First, it is
important to recognize that get-tough-on-crime laws, such as the
threestrikes (and two-strikes) laws that were enacted in many states during
the mid1990s, fueled rapid increases in prison populations. The conservative
attitudes that gave birth to those laws are still largely with us, and much of
the increase in state prison populations has come from imprisoning more
people for violent crimes for longer periods of time. At the federal level, the
Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 encouraged longer
prison sentences for more crimes and led to the adoption of harsher
sentencing regimes throughout the nation. A second reason that correctional
populations increased rapidly during the 1990s and the decade that followed
can be found in the Twentieth Century’s War on Drugs. The War on Drugs led
to the arrest and conviction of many people, resulting in larger correctional
populations in nearly every jurisdiction (especially within the federal
correctional system). The congressional Colson Task Force on Federal
Corrections, which issued its report ten years ago, found that “The biggest
driver of growth” in the federal prison population was “federally sentenced
drug oenders, almost all of whom were convicted of drug tracking” (see
Exhibit 1–2 for drug arrests, and compare it with Exhibit 1–1 to see the
impact of drug arrests on prison populations). Many drug arrestees—
especially trackers—are sentenced to lengthy prison terms, further
increasing the number of people in prison, and many such people have
multiple convictions, including use (or possession) of a rearm during a drug
transaction. So although today’s drive to legalize marijuana and other
previously illicit substances may lead to fewer imprisoned persons in the
future, the last century’s War on Drugs goes a long way 5 6 1/26/25, 4:40 PM
The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now? https://prod.reader-
ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 5/15 toward explaining the historical
growth in correctional populations even while the rate of “serious crime” in
the United States was declining. 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where
Do We Go Now?
https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 6/15 EXHIBIT 1–2 U.S. Drug Arrests,
1980–2020. Page 6 Source: Bureau of Justice Statistics. 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The
Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now? https://prod.reader-
ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 7/15 Third, parole authorities became
increasingly reluctant to release people on parole for fear of the civil liability
that they could face should those people commit new crimes. This
contributed to a further expansion of prison populations. Fourth, as some
observers have noted, the corrections boom created its own growth dynamic.
As ever increasing numbers of people were placed on probation, the
likelihood of probation violations increased. Prison sentences for more and
more violators resulted in larger prison populations. When people who have
been in prison are released, they swell the numbers of those on parole,
leading to a larger number of parole violations, which in turn can still fuel
further prison growth. Statistics show that the number of persons convicted
of violating the criminal law and then sent to prison for at least the second
time has increased steadily, accounting for approximately 35 percent of the
total number of admissions. One analysis of the dramatic increase in
imprisonment, found that it “was not driven by a centralized national-level
strategy for dealing with crime and was not based on a coherent body of
empirical knowledge demonstrating that prisons improved public safety.”
Instead, said the report, “it was the product of layers of legislative decisions,
primarily enacted at the state level, to charge and imprison more oenders,
increase sentences, limit prison releases, and expand” prison capacity. These
decisions led to a new era in which prisons became primary weapons in what
was then seen as the nation’s war on drugs and on crime. 7 8 1/26/25, 4:40
PM The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now? https://prod.reader-
ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 8/15 U.S. correctional populations
have grown dramatically over the past 40 years, as this image of
incarcerated persons living in a modified gymnasium at the Mule Creek State
Prison in Ione, California, illustrates. What factors led to a substantial
increase in the use of imprisonment in this country beginning in the 1980s?
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do
We Go Now?
https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 9/15 Turning the Corner in U.S. Prison
Populations While get-tough-on-crime attitudes continue to persist among
signicant segments of American society today, they have largely been
trumped by economic realities. State budgets have been hard pressed to
continue funding prison expansion, and the number of people behind bars
began to show a slow decline beginning around 2010. Alternatives to
imprisonment, most of which will be discussed in coming chapters, are many
and include probation, nes, and community service—to which people who
have been convicted are being sentenced in increasing numbers. In order to
reduce correctional expenditures even further, some states are using forms
of early release from prison, shortening time served, reducing the period of
probation or parole supervision, and shifting the responsibility of supervising
people who have been convicted to county-level governments (and away
from state responsibility). We will examine these innovations at various
places throughout this text. As states grappled with the economic realities of
reduced revenues and constrained budgets beginning in the early 2000s, it
became increasingly important to get the most “bang for the buck,” so to
speak, out of correctional programs. The realization that imprisonment had
become too expensive, combined with a number of other factors, led to a
decline in prison populations. Other reasons for the decline include: 1.
Criminal justice reform policies—Many states have enacted policies aimed at
reducing the use of imprisonment and promoting alternatives to
incarceration, such as drug courts and community supervision programs. 2. A
decrease in crime rates—In recent years, crime rates in the United States
have generally been declining (contrary to what the popular media might
depict), which has contributed to a reduction in the number of people being
sentenced to prison. 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do We Go
Now? https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 10/15 Page 7 In her incoming
presidential address to the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences, Melissa
Hickman Barlow outlined a plan for the implementation of sustainable
justice. Barlow dened sustainable justice as “criminal laws and criminal
justice institutions, policies, and practices that achieve justice in the present
without compromising the ability of future generations to have the benets of
a just society.” Barlow’s call for aordable justice, based on principles and
operating practices that can be carried into the future without bankrupting
generations yet to come, represents an important turning point in our
nation’s approach to corrections and other justice institutions. These and
other factors have contributed to a reduction in the number of people being
incarcerated in the United States and a growing recognition of the need to
adopt evidence-based policies. As we will see in the next chapter, the
evidencebased movement in corrections seeks to evaluate programs and
services to see which are the most eective relative to their costs. Evidence-
based practices play an important role in correctional administration today—
and should contribute much to the call for sustainable justice and continue to
contribute to a decline in the use of imprisonment. 3. Reforms to sentencing
laws—Some states have passed laws to reduce mandatory minimum
sentences and provide greater discretion to judges in imposing sentences,
which has, in turn, led to fewer people being sentenced to long prison terms.
4. Decarceration initiatives—In response to overcrowding, budget
constraints, and public pressure, some states have implemented initiatives
to safely reduce their prison populations, such as early release programs and
parole reforms. 5. Changes in drug enforcement policies—Some states have
adopted reforms to their drug enforcement policies, such as reducing
sentences for drug oenses and expanding access to treatment, all of which
have reduced the number of people incarcerated for drug-related crimes. 9
1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now?
https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 11/15 Correctional Employment As
correctional populations peaked, increasing budgets led to a dramatically
expanding correctional workforce and enhanced employment opportunities
within the eld. Much of that momentum continues into the present day. In
2023, for example, the North Carolina Department of Public Safety oered a
$7,000 hiring bonus for new correctional ocers (COs), and the Tennessee
Department of Corrections provided a $5,000 bonus to newly hired ocers. At
the same time, the Nebraska Department of Correctional Services provided a
bonus of $15,000 for experienced COs (i.e., for those at the rank of corporal
or higher) who were willing to work at the Nebraska State Penitentiary and
other select facilities. According to historical reports, persons employed in
the corrections eld totaled approximately 27,000 in 1950. By 1975, the
number had risen to about 75,000. Estimates published by the Bureau of
Labor Statistics (BLS) in 2021 show that over 400,000 government
employees throughout the United States worked in corrections, with a total
monthly payroll of around $3 billion. BLS also found that the average hourly
and annual wage for COs and jailers was $25.69 and $53,420, respectively.
Of course, supervisors and those at higher rank earned more than the
average. Similarly, those who begin work with college degrees are paid
more. Exhibit 1–3 shows some of the employment possibilities in corrections.
Page 8 10 11 12 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now?
https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 12/15 EXHIBIT 1–3 Careers in
Corrections 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now?
https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 13/15 Prisons mean jobs and can
contribute greatly to the health of local economies. Some economically
disadvantaged towns—from Tupper Lake, in the Adirondack Mountains of
upstate New York, to Edgeeld, South Carolina—recently cashed in on the
corrections industry, having successfully competed to become sites for new
prisons. Although prison populations have recently fallen, a number of states
are building new prisons to replace failing prison infrastructure with safer,
more secure facilities that accommodate the rehabilitation of incarcerated
people. In 2021, for example, the state of Alabama announced the planned
construction of two new correctional facilities to be built on state-owned
land. The two new facilities, each designed to hold 4,000 persons in
connement will cost approximately $700 million to build and will contribute
about $30 million a year to the local economy. Academic teacher Activity
therapy administrator Business manager Case manager Chaplain Chemical
dependency manager Children’s services counselor Classication ocer Clinical
social worker Correctional ocer Dietary ocer Drug court coordinator Field
administrator Fugitive apprehension ocer Human services counselor Job
placement ocer Mental health clinician Parole caseworker Parole ocer
Presentence investigator Probation ocer Program ocer Program specialist
Programmer/analyst Psychologist Recreation coordinator Social worker
Statistician Substance abuse counselor Unit leader Victim advocate
Vocational instructor Warden/superintendent Youth services coordinator
Youth supervisor 13 14 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do We
Go Now? https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-
uuid-3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 14/15 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The
Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now? https://prod.reader-
ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 15/15
CO1-1 THE CARCERAL STATE: WHERE DO WE GO NOW? One amazing fact
stands out from all the contemporary information about American
corrections: While serious crime in the United States consistently declined
throughout much of the 1990s, and while such declines continued into the
rst two decades of the 21st century, the number of people under correctional
supervision in this country—not just the number of people who have been
convicted and sent to prison—started to skyrocket during the 1980s, and
only began to drop after 2010. Crime rates are approximately 20 percent
lower today than they were in 1980. In fact, they are near their lowest level
in 35 years. But the number of people under correctional supervision
increased almost 300% between 1980 and 2010— when it nally started to
decline. During that period, the federal prison population went from 11
incarcerated persons for every 100,000 U.S. residents to 68. Annual
spending on the federal prison system rose 600 percent, from $970 million to
more than $6.7 billion in ination-adjusted dollars. States, like the federal
government, recorded sharp increases in incarceration and corrections costs
over the three 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now?
https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 1/15 decades from 1980 to 2010.
Numbers like these show that the era of mass incarceration, created a
widescale reliance on the use of imprisonment to address the nation’s
problems. By the turn of the 21st century, the provision of correctional
services of all kinds had become a major strain on government budgets at all
levels. Page 4 Today, progress is being made in bringing imprisonment rates
down. By 2020, the imprisonment rate at the federal level had fallen to 43
persons out of every 100,000 U.S. residents—and it continues to decline. In
just one year (between 2019 and 2020), federal prisons showed a 40%
decrease in new admissions. State prisons showed similar declines, with the
largest percentage declines in admissions in California, which had 66% fewer
admissions in 2020 than in 2019, and in New York where admissions to
prison decreased by 60%. Although some of the decline in prison admissions
was the result of new government policies, the bulk of it was due to the fact
that courts across the country altered their operations during the COVID
epidemic, leading to delays in trials and the sentencing of persons. Alongside
fewer admissions, there have also been increases in the number of persons
released from prison, but when viewed historically American prison
populations continue to be extraordinarily high ( Exhibit 1-1). Critics of
today’s continued high rates of imprisonment sometimes refer to our country
as a carceral state. The term carceral state implies that government power is
being used to incapacitate, incarcerate, detain, or otherwise limit the
physical freedom of vast numbers of people, extending far beyond that
necessary to ensure a safe and just society. Of course, the words “safe” and
“just” are critical and reveal that social justice concerns need to be balanced
with public safety in determining appropriate levels of incapacitation not only
in the United States but in any society. Those who support the widespread
use of incarceration argue that public safety can be assured only through
incapacitation of those who are dangerous. But “dangerousness” can be a
slippery concept when applied to social activity that may 3 1/26/25, 4:40 PM
The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now? https://prod.reader-
ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 2/15 not physically harm others
directly—as when those who use (or even trac in) illicit drugs are arrested
and prosecuted. Nora Krinitsky, Director of the Carceral State Project at the
University of Michigan, says, “The term carceral state often calls to mind
institutions of connement like jails, detention centers, prisons, but … it also
comprises a wide range of policies, practices, and institutions that scrutinize
individuals and communities both before and after their contact with the
criminal justice system.” We might also add that, in a true carceral state, the
justice system employs millions of men and women who directly depend
upon high rates of imprisonment and detention to earn a living. 4 1/26/25,
4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now? https://prod.reader-
ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 3/15 EXHIBIT 1–1 The Growth of
Imprisonment in the United States Page 5 Source: Bureau of Justice Statistics
1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now?
https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 4/15 The question that needs to be
answered is, “Why?” Why did the American correctional population increase
so dramatically in recent decades even in the face of declining crime rates?
And why is the United States still in the midst of an era of mass
incarceration? The answer to these questions, like the answers to most
societal enigmas, is far from simple, and it has a number of dimensions. We
identify four such dimensions in the material that follows. First, it is
important to recognize that get-tough-on-crime laws, such as the
threestrikes (and two-strikes) laws that were enacted in many states during
the mid1990s, fueled rapid increases in prison populations. The conservative
attitudes that gave birth to those laws are still largely with us, and much of
the increase in state prison populations has come from imprisoning more
people for violent crimes for longer periods of time. At the federal level, the
Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 encouraged longer
prison sentences for more crimes and led to the adoption of harsher
sentencing regimes throughout the nation. A second reason that correctional
populations increased rapidly during the 1990s and the decade that followed
can be found in the Twentieth Century’s War on Drugs. The War on Drugs led
to the arrest and conviction of many people, resulting in larger correctional
populations in nearly every jurisdiction (especially within the federal
correctional system). The congressional Colson Task Force on Federal
Corrections, which issued its report ten years ago, found that “The biggest
driver of growth” in the federal prison population was “federally sentenced
drug oenders, almost all of whom were convicted of drug tracking” (see
Exhibit 1–2 for drug arrests, and compare it with Exhibit 1–1 to see the
impact of drug arrests on prison populations). Many drug arrestees—
especially trackers—are sentenced to lengthy prison terms, further
increasing the number of people in prison, and many such people have
multiple convictions, including use (or possession) of a rearm during a drug
transaction. So although today’s drive to legalize marijuana and other
previously illicit substances may lead to fewer imprisoned persons in the
future, the last century’s War on Drugs goes a long way 5 6 1/26/25, 4:40 PM
The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now? https://prod.reader-
ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 5/15 toward explaining the historical
growth in correctional populations even while the rate of “serious crime” in
the United States was declining. 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where
Do We Go Now?
https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 6/15 EXHIBIT 1–2 U.S. Drug Arrests,
1980–2020. Page 6 Source: Bureau of Justice Statistics. 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The
Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now? https://prod.reader-
ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 7/15 Third, parole authorities became
increasingly reluctant to release people on parole for fear of the civil liability
that they could face should those people commit new crimes. This
contributed to a further expansion of prison populations. Fourth, as some
observers have noted, the corrections boom created its own growth dynamic.
As ever increasing numbers of people were placed on probation, the
likelihood of probation violations increased. Prison sentences for more and
more violators resulted in larger prison populations. When people who have
been in prison are released, they swell the numbers of those on parole,
leading to a larger number of parole violations, which in turn can still fuel
further prison growth. Statistics show that the number of persons convicted
of violating the criminal law and then sent to prison for at least the second
time has increased steadily, accounting for approximately 35 percent of the
total number of admissions. One analysis of the dramatic increase in
imprisonment, found that it “was not driven by a centralized national-level
strategy for dealing with crime and was not based on a coherent body of
empirical knowledge demonstrating that prisons improved public safety.”
Instead, said the report, “it was the product of layers of legislative decisions,
primarily enacted at the state level, to charge and imprison more oenders,
increase sentences, limit prison releases, and expand” prison capacity. These
decisions led to a new era in which prisons became primary weapons in what
was then seen as the nation’s war on drugs and on crime. 7 8 1/26/25, 4:40
PM The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now? https://prod.reader-
ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 8/15 U.S. correctional populations
have grown dramatically over the past 40 years, as this image of
incarcerated persons living in a modified gymnasium at the Mule Creek State
Prison in Ione, California, illustrates. What factors led to a substantial
increase in the use of imprisonment in this country beginning in the 1980s?
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do
We Go Now?
https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 9/15 Turning the Corner in U.S. Prison
Populations While get-tough-on-crime attitudes continue to persist among
signicant segments of American society today, they have largely been
trumped by economic realities. State budgets have been hard pressed to
continue funding prison expansion, and the number of people behind bars
began to show a slow decline beginning around 2010. Alternatives to
imprisonment, most of which will be discussed in coming chapters, are many
and include probation, nes, and community service—to which people who
have been convicted are being sentenced in increasing numbers. In order to
reduce correctional expenditures even further, some states are using forms
of early release from prison, shortening time served, reducing the period of
probation or parole supervision, and shifting the responsibility of supervising
people who have been convicted to county-level governments (and away
from state responsibility). We will examine these innovations at various
places throughout this text. As states grappled with the economic realities of
reduced revenues and constrained budgets beginning in the early 2000s, it
became increasingly important to get the most “bang for the buck,” so to
speak, out of correctional programs. The realization that imprisonment had
become too expensive, combined with a number of other factors, led to a
decline in prison populations. Other reasons for the decline include: 1.
Criminal justice reform policies—Many states have enacted policies aimed at
reducing the use of imprisonment and promoting alternatives to
incarceration, such as drug courts and community supervision programs. 2. A
decrease in crime rates—In recent years, crime rates in the United States
have generally been declining (contrary to what the popular media might
depict), which has contributed to a reduction in the number of people being
sentenced to prison. 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do We Go
Now? https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 10/15 Page 7 In her incoming
presidential address to the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences, Melissa
Hickman Barlow outlined a plan for the implementation of sustainable
justice. Barlow dened sustainable justice as “criminal laws and criminal
justice institutions, policies, and practices that achieve justice in the present
without compromising the ability of future generations to have the benets of
a just society.” Barlow’s call for aordable justice, based on principles and
operating practices that can be carried into the future without bankrupting
generations yet to come, represents an important turning point in our
nation’s approach to corrections and other justice institutions. These and
other factors have contributed to a reduction in the number of people being
incarcerated in the United States and a growing recognition of the need to
adopt evidence-based policies. As we will see in the next chapter, the
evidencebased movement in corrections seeks to evaluate programs and
services to see which are the most eective relative to their costs. Evidence-
based practices play an important role in correctional administration today—
and should contribute much to the call for sustainable justice and continue to
contribute to a decline in the use of imprisonment. 3. Reforms to sentencing
laws—Some states have passed laws to reduce mandatory minimum
sentences and provide greater discretion to judges in imposing sentences,
which has, in turn, led to fewer people being sentenced to long prison terms.
4. Decarceration initiatives—In response to overcrowding, budget
constraints, and public pressure, some states have implemented initiatives
to safely reduce their prison populations, such as early release programs and
parole reforms. 5. Changes in drug enforcement policies—Some states have
adopted reforms to their drug enforcement policies, such as reducing
sentences for drug oenses and expanding access to treatment, all of which
have reduced the number of people incarcerated for drug-related crimes. 9
1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now?
https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 11/15 Correctional Employment As
correctional populations peaked, increasing budgets led to a dramatically
expanding correctional workforce and enhanced employment opportunities
within the eld. Much of that momentum continues into the present day. In
2023, for example, the North Carolina Department of Public Safety oered a
$7,000 hiring bonus for new correctional ocers (COs), and the Tennessee
Department of Corrections provided a $5,000 bonus to newly hired ocers. At
the same time, the Nebraska Department of Correctional Services provided a
bonus of $15,000 for experienced COs (i.e., for those at the rank of corporal
or higher) who were willing to work at the Nebraska State Penitentiary and
other select facilities. According to historical reports, persons employed in
the corrections eld totaled approximately 27,000 in 1950. By 1975, the
number had risen to about 75,000. Estimates published by the Bureau of
Labor Statistics (BLS) in 2021 show that over 400,000 government
employees throughout the United States worked in corrections, with a total
monthly payroll of around $3 billion. BLS also found that the average hourly
and annual wage for COs and jailers was $25.69 and $53,420, respectively.
Of course, supervisors and those at higher rank earned more than the
average. Similarly, those who begin work with college degrees are paid
more. Exhibit 1–3 shows some of the employment possibilities in corrections.
Page 8 10 11 12 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now?
https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 12/15 EXHIBIT 1–3 Careers in
Corrections 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now?
https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 13/15 Prisons mean jobs and can
contribute greatly to the health of local economies. Some economically
disadvantaged towns—from Tupper Lake, in the Adirondack Mountains of
upstate New York, to Edgeeld, South Carolina—recently cashed in on the
corrections industry, having successfully competed to become sites for new
prisons. Although prison populations have recently fallen, a number of states
are building new prisons to replace failing prison infrastructure with safer,
more secure facilities that accommodate the rehabilitation of incarcerated
people. In 2021, for example, the state of Alabama announced the planned
construction of two new correctional facilities to be built on state-owned
land. The two new facilities, each designed to hold 4,000 persons in
connement will cost approximately $700 million to build and will contribute
about $30 million a year to the local economy. Academic teacher Activity
therapy administrator Business manager Case manager Chaplain Chemical
dependency manager Children’s services counselor Classication ocer Clinical
social worker Correctional ocer Dietary ocer Drug court coordinator Field
administrator Fugitive apprehension ocer Human services counselor Job
placement ocer Mental health clinician Parole caseworker Parole ocer
Presentence investigator Probation ocer Program ocer Program specialist
Programmer/analyst Psychologist Recreation coordinator Social worker
Statistician Substance abuse counselor Unit leader Victim advocate
Vocational instructor Warden/superintendent Youth services coordinator
Youth supervisor 13 14 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do We
Go Now? https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-
uuid-3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 14/15 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The
Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now? https://prod.reader-
ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 15/15
CO1-1 THE CARCERAL STATE: WHERE DO WE GO NOW? One amazing fact
stands out from all the contemporary information about American
corrections: While serious crime in the United States consistently declined
throughout much of the 1990s, and while such declines continued into the
rst two decades of the 21st century, the number of people under correctional
supervision in this country—not just the number of people who have been
convicted and sent to prison—started to skyrocket during the 1980s, and
only began to drop after 2010. Crime rates are approximately 20 percent
lower today than they were in 1980. In fact, they are near their lowest level
in 35 years. But the number of people under correctional supervision
increased almost 300% between 1980 and 2010— when it nally started to
decline. During that period, the federal prison population went from 11
incarcerated persons for every 100,000 U.S. residents to 68. Annual
spending on the federal prison system rose 600 percent, from $970 million to
more than $6.7 billion in ination-adjusted dollars. States, like the federal
government, recorded sharp increases in incarceration and corrections costs
over the three 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now?
https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 1/15 decades from 1980 to 2010.
Numbers like these show that the era of mass incarceration, created a
widescale reliance on the use of imprisonment to address the nation’s
problems. By the turn of the 21st century, the provision of correctional
services of all kinds had become a major strain on government budgets at all
levels. Page 4 Today, progress is being made in bringing imprisonment rates
down. By 2020, the imprisonment rate at the federal level had fallen to 43
persons out of every 100,000 U.S. residents—and it continues to decline. In
just one year (between 2019 and 2020), federal prisons showed a 40%
decrease in new admissions. State prisons showed similar declines, with the
largest percentage declines in admissions in California, which had 66% fewer
admissions in 2020 than in 2019, and in New York where admissions to
prison decreased by 60%. Although some of the decline in prison admissions
was the result of new government policies, the bulk of it was due to the fact
that courts across the country altered their operations during the COVID
epidemic, leading to delays in trials and the sentencing of persons. Alongside
fewer admissions, there have also been increases in the number of persons
released from prison, but when viewed historically American prison
populations continue to be extraordinarily high ( Exhibit 1-1). Critics of
today’s continued high rates of imprisonment sometimes refer to our country
as a carceral state. The term carceral state implies that government power is
being used to incapacitate, incarcerate, detain, or otherwise limit the
physical freedom of vast numbers of people, extending far beyond that
necessary to ensure a safe and just society. Of course, the words “safe” and
“just” are critical and reveal that social justice concerns need to be balanced
with public safety in determining appropriate levels of incapacitation not only
in the United States but in any society. Those who support the widespread
use of incarceration argue that public safety can be assured only through
incapacitation of those who are dangerous. But “dangerousness” can be a
slippery concept when applied to social activity that may 3 1/26/25, 4:40 PM
The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now? https://prod.reader-
ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 2/15 not physically harm others
directly—as when those who use (or even trac in) illicit drugs are arrested
and prosecuted. Nora Krinitsky, Director of the Carceral State Project at the
University of Michigan, says, “The term carceral state often calls to mind
institutions of connement like jails, detention centers, prisons, but … it also
comprises a wide range of policies, practices, and institutions that scrutinize
individuals and communities both before and after their contact with the
criminal justice system.” We might also add that, in a true carceral state, the
justice system employs millions of men and women who directly depend
upon high rates of imprisonment and detention to earn a living. 4 1/26/25,
4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now? https://prod.reader-
ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 3/15 EXHIBIT 1–1 The Growth of
Imprisonment in the United States Page 5 Source: Bureau of Justice Statistics
1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now?
https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 4/15 The question that needs to be
answered is, “Why?” Why did the American correctional population increase
so dramatically in recent decades even in the face of declining crime rates?
And why is the United States still in the midst of an era of mass
incarceration? The answer to these questions, like the answers to most
societal enigmas, is far from simple, and it has a number of dimensions. We
identify four such dimensions in the material that follows. First, it is
important to recognize that get-tough-on-crime laws, such as the
threestrikes (and two-strikes) laws that were enacted in many states during
the mid1990s, fueled rapid increases in prison populations. The conservative
attitudes that gave birth to those laws are still largely with us, and much of
the increase in state prison populations has come from imprisoning more
people for violent crimes for longer periods of time. At the federal level, the
Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 encouraged longer
prison sentences for more crimes and led to the adoption of harsher
sentencing regimes throughout the nation. A second reason that correctional
populations increased rapidly during the 1990s and the decade that followed
can be found in the Twentieth Century’s War on Drugs. The War on Drugs led
to the arrest and conviction of many people, resulting in larger correctional
populations in nearly every jurisdiction (especially within the federal
correctional system). The congressional Colson Task Force on Federal
Corrections, which issued its report ten years ago, found that “The biggest
driver of growth” in the federal prison population was “federally sentenced
drug oenders, almost all of whom were convicted of drug tracking” (see
Exhibit 1–2 for drug arrests, and compare it with Exhibit 1–1 to see the
impact of drug arrests on prison populations). Many drug arrestees—
especially trackers—are sentenced to lengthy prison terms, further
increasing the number of people in prison, and many such people have
multiple convictions, including use (or possession) of a rearm during a drug
transaction. So although today’s drive to legalize marijuana and other
previously illicit substances may lead to fewer imprisoned persons in the
future, the last century’s War on Drugs goes a long way 5 6 1/26/25, 4:40 PM
The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now? https://prod.reader-
ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 5/15 toward explaining the historical
growth in correctional populations even while the rate of “serious crime” in
the United States was declining. 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where
Do We Go Now?
https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 6/15 EXHIBIT 1–2 U.S. Drug Arrests,
1980–2020. Page 6 Source: Bureau of Justice Statistics. 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The
Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now? https://prod.reader-
ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 7/15 Third, parole authorities became
increasingly reluctant to release people on parole for fear of the civil liability
that they could face should those people commit new crimes. This
contributed to a further expansion of prison populations. Fourth, as some
observers have noted, the corrections boom created its own growth dynamic.
As ever increasing numbers of people were placed on probation, the
likelihood of probation violations increased. Prison sentences for more and
more violators resulted in larger prison populations. When people who have
been in prison are released, they swell the numbers of those on parole,
leading to a larger number of parole violations, which in turn can still fuel
further prison growth. Statistics show that the number of persons convicted
of violating the criminal law and then sent to prison for at least the second
time has increased steadily, accounting for approximately 35 percent of the
total number of admissions. One analysis of the dramatic increase in
imprisonment, found that it “was not driven by a centralized national-level
strategy for dealing with crime and was not based on a coherent body of
empirical knowledge demonstrating that prisons improved public safety.”
Instead, said the report, “it was the product of layers of legislative decisions,
primarily enacted at the state level, to charge and imprison more oenders,
increase sentences, limit prison releases, and expand” prison capacity. These
decisions led to a new era in which prisons became primary weapons in what
was then seen as the nation’s war on drugs and on crime. 7 8 1/26/25, 4:40
PM The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now? https://prod.reader-
ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 8/15 U.S. correctional populations
have grown dramatically over the past 40 years, as this image of
incarcerated persons living in a modified gymnasium at the Mule Creek State
Prison in Ione, California, illustrates. What factors led to a substantial
increase in the use of imprisonment in this country beginning in the 1980s?
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do
We Go Now?
https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 9/15 Turning the Corner in U.S. Prison
Populations While get-tough-on-crime attitudes continue to persist among
signicant segments of American society today, they have largely been
trumped by economic realities. State budgets have been hard pressed to
continue funding prison expansion, and the number of people behind bars
began to show a slow decline beginning around 2010. Alternatives to
imprisonment, most of which will be discussed in coming chapters, are many
and include probation, nes, and community service—to which people who
have been convicted are being sentenced in increasing numbers. In order to
reduce correctional expenditures even further, some states are using forms
of early release from prison, shortening time served, reducing the period of
probation or parole supervision, and shifting the responsibility of supervising
people who have been convicted to county-level governments (and away
from state responsibility). We will examine these innovations at various
places throughout this text. As states grappled with the economic realities of
reduced revenues and constrained budgets beginning in the early 2000s, it
became increasingly important to get the most “bang for the buck,” so to
speak, out of correctional programs. The realization that imprisonment had
become too expensive, combined with a number of other factors, led to a
decline in prison populations. Other reasons for the decline include: 1.
Criminal justice reform policies—Many states have enacted policies aimed at
reducing the use of imprisonment and promoting alternatives to
incarceration, such as drug courts and community supervision programs. 2. A
decrease in crime rates—In recent years, crime rates in the United States
have generally been declining (contrary to what the popular media might
depict), which has contributed to a reduction in the number of people being
sentenced to prison. 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do We Go
Now? https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 10/15 Page 7 In her incoming
presidential address to the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences, Melissa
Hickman Barlow outlined a plan for the implementation of sustainable
justice. Barlow dened sustainable justice as “criminal laws and criminal
justice institutions, policies, and practices that achieve justice in the present
without compromising the ability of future generations to have the benets of
a just society.” Barlow’s call for aordable justice, based on principles and
operating practices that can be carried into the future without bankrupting
generations yet to come, represents an important turning point in our
nation’s approach to corrections and other justice institutions. These and
other factors have contributed to a reduction in the number of people being
incarcerated in the United States and a growing recognition of the need to
adopt evidence-based policies. As we will see in the next chapter, the
evidencebased movement in corrections seeks to evaluate programs and
services to see which are the most eective relative to their costs. Evidence-
based practices play an important role in correctional administration today—
and should contribute much to the call for sustainable justice and continue to
contribute to a decline in the use of imprisonment. 3. Reforms to sentencing
laws—Some states have passed laws to reduce mandatory minimum
sentences and provide greater discretion to judges in imposing sentences,
which has, in turn, led to fewer people being sentenced to long prison terms.
4. Decarceration initiatives—In response to overcrowding, budget
constraints, and public pressure, some states have implemented initiatives
to safely reduce their prison populations, such as early release programs and
parole reforms. 5. Changes in drug enforcement policies—Some states have
adopted reforms to their drug enforcement policies, such as reducing
sentences for drug oenses and expanding access to treatment, all of which
have reduced the number of people incarcerated for drug-related crimes. 9
1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now?
https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 11/15 Correctional Employment As
correctional populations peaked, increasing budgets led to a dramatically
expanding correctional workforce and enhanced employment opportunities
within the eld. Much of that momentum continues into the present day. In
2023, for example, the North Carolina Department of Public Safety oered a
$7,000 hiring bonus for new correctional ocers (COs), and the Tennessee
Department of Corrections provided a $5,000 bonus to newly hired ocers. At
the same time, the Nebraska Department of Correctional Services provided a
bonus of $15,000 for experienced COs (i.e., for those at the rank of corporal
or higher) who were willing to work at the Nebraska State Penitentiary and
other select facilities. According to historical reports, persons employed in
the corrections eld totaled approximately 27,000 in 1950. By 1975, the
number had risen to about 75,000. Estimates published by the Bureau of
Labor Statistics (BLS) in 2021 show that over 400,000 government
employees throughout the United States worked in corrections, with a total
monthly payroll of around $3 billion. BLS also found that the average hourly
and annual wage for COs and jailers was $25.69 and $53,420, respectively.
Of course, supervisors and those at higher rank earned more than the
average. Similarly, those who begin work with college degrees are paid
more. Exhibit 1–3 shows some of the employment possibilities in corrections.
Page 8 10 11 12 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now?
https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 12/15 EXHIBIT 1–3 Careers in
Corrections 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now?
https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 13/15 Prisons mean jobs and can
contribute greatly to the health of local economies. Some economically
disadvantaged towns—from Tupper Lake, in the Adirondack Mountains of
upstate New York, to Edgeeld, South Carolina—recently cashed in on the
corrections industry, having successfully competed to become sites for new
prisons. Although prison populations have recently fallen, a number of states
are building new prisons to replace failing prison infrastructure with safer,
more secure facilities that accommodate the rehabilitation of incarcerated
people. In 2021, for example, the state of Alabama announced the planned
construction of two new correctional facilities to be built on state-owned
land. The two new facilities, each designed to hold 4,000 persons in
connement will cost approximately $700 million to build and will contribute
about $30 million a year to the local economy. Academic teacher Activity
therapy administrator Business manager Case manager Chaplain Chemical
dependency manager Children’s services counselor Classication ocer Clinical
social worker Correctional ocer Dietary ocer Drug court coordinator Field
administrator Fugitive apprehension ocer Human services counselor Job
placement ocer Mental health clinician Parole caseworker Parole ocer
Presentence investigator Probation ocer Program ocer Program specialist
Programmer/analyst Psychologist Recreation coordinator Social worker
Statistician Substance abuse counselor Unit leader Victim advocate
Vocational instructor Warden/superintendent Youth services coordinator
Youth supervisor 13 14 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do We
Go Now? https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-
uuid-3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 14/15 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The
Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now? https://prod.reader-
ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 15/15
CO1-1 THE CARCERAL STATE: WHERE DO WE GO NOW? One amazing fact
stands out from all the contemporary information about American
corrections: While serious crime in the United States consistently declined
throughout much of the 1990s, and while such declines continued into the
rst two decades of the 21st century, the number of people under correctional
supervision in this country—not just the number of people who have been
convicted and sent to prison—started to skyrocket during the 1980s, and
only began to drop after 2010. Crime rates are approximately 20 percent
lower today than they were in 1980. In fact, they are near their lowest level
in 35 years. But the number of people under correctional supervision
increased almost 300% between 1980 and 2010— when it nally started to
decline. During that period, the federal prison population went from 11
incarcerated persons for every 100,000 U.S. residents to 68. Annual
spending on the federal prison system rose 600 percent, from $970 million to
more than $6.7 billion in ination-adjusted dollars. States, like the federal
government, recorded sharp increases in incarceration and corrections costs
over the three 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now?
https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 1/15 decades from 1980 to 2010.
Numbers like these show that the era of mass incarceration, created a
widescale reliance on the use of imprisonment to address the nation’s
problems. By the turn of the 21st century, the provision of correctional
services of all kinds had become a major strain on government budgets at all
levels. Page 4 Today, progress is being made in bringing imprisonment rates
down. By 2020, the imprisonment rate at the federal level had fallen to 43
persons out of every 100,000 U.S. residents—and it continues to decline. In
just one year (between 2019 and 2020), federal prisons showed a 40%
decrease in new admissions. State prisons showed similar declines, with the
largest percentage declines in admissions in California, which had 66% fewer
admissions in 2020 than in 2019, and in New York where admissions to
prison decreased by 60%. Although some of the decline in prison admissions
was the result of new government policies, the bulk of it was due to the fact
that courts across the country altered their operations during the COVID
epidemic, leading to delays in trials and the sentencing of persons. Alongside
fewer admissions, there have also been increases in the number of persons
released from prison, but when viewed historically American prison
populations continue to be extraordinarily high ( Exhibit 1-1). Critics of
today’s continued high rates of imprisonment sometimes refer to our country
as a carceral state. The term carceral state implies that government power is
being used to incapacitate, incarcerate, detain, or otherwise limit the
physical freedom of vast numbers of people, extending far beyond that
necessary to ensure a safe and just society. Of course, the words “safe” and
“just” are critical and reveal that social justice concerns need to be balanced
with public safety in determining appropriate levels of incapacitation not only
in the United States but in any society. Those who support the widespread
use of incarceration argue that public safety can be assured only through
incapacitation of those who are dangerous. But “dangerousness” can be a
slippery concept when applied to social activity that may 3 1/26/25, 4:40 PM
The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now?
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 2/15 not physically harm others
directly—as when those who use (or even trac in) illicit drugs are arrested
and prosecuted. Nora Krinitsky, Director of the Carceral State Project at the
University of Michigan, says, “The term carceral state often calls to mind
institutions of connement like jails, detention centers, prisons, but … it also
comprises a wide range of policies, practices, and institutions that scrutinize
individuals and communities both before and after their contact with the
criminal justice system.” We might also add that, in a true carceral state, the
justice system employs millions of men and women who directly depend
upon high rates of imprisonment and detention to earn a living. 4 1/26/25,
4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now? https://prod.reader-
ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 3/15 EXHIBIT 1–1 The Growth of
Imprisonment in the United States Page 5 Source: Bureau of Justice Statistics
1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now?
https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 4/15 The question that needs to be
answered is, “Why?” Why did the American correctional population increase
so dramatically in recent decades even in the face of declining crime rates?
And why is the United States still in the midst of an era of mass
incarceration? The answer to these questions, like the answers to most
societal enigmas, is far from simple, and it has a number of dimensions. We
identify four such dimensions in the material that follows. First, it is
important to recognize that get-tough-on-crime laws, such as the
threestrikes (and two-strikes) laws that were enacted in many states during
the mid1990s, fueled rapid increases in prison populations. The conservative
attitudes that gave birth to those laws are still largely with us, and much of
the increase in state prison populations has come from imprisoning more
people for violent crimes for longer periods of time. At the federal level, the
Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 encouraged longer
prison sentences for more crimes and led to the adoption of harsher
sentencing regimes throughout the nation. A second reason that correctional
populations increased rapidly during the 1990s and the decade that followed
can be found in the Twentieth Century’s War on Drugs. The War on Drugs led
to the arrest and conviction of many people, resulting in larger correctional
populations in nearly every jurisdiction (especially within the federal
correctional system). The congressional Colson Task Force on Federal
Corrections, which issued its report ten years ago, found that “The biggest
driver of growth” in the federal prison population was “federally sentenced
drug oenders, almost all of whom were convicted of drug tracking” (see
Exhibit 1–2 for drug arrests, and compare it with Exhibit 1–1 to see the
impact of drug arrests on prison populations). Many drug arrestees—
especially trackers—are sentenced to lengthy prison terms, further
increasing the number of people in prison, and many such people have
multiple convictions, including use (or possession) of a rearm during a drug
transaction. So although today’s drive to legalize marijuana and other
previously illicit substances may lead to fewer imprisoned persons in the
future, the last century’s War on Drugs goes a long way 5 6 1/26/25, 4:40 PM
The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now? https://prod.reader-
ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 5/15 toward explaining the historical
growth in correctional populations even while the rate of “serious crime” in
the United States was declining. 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where
Do We Go Now?
https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 6/15 EXHIBIT 1–2 U.S. Drug Arrests,
1980–2020. Page 6 Source: Bureau of Justice Statistics. 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The
Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now? https://prod.reader-
ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 7/15 Third, parole authorities became
increasingly reluctant to release people on parole for fear of the civil liability
that they could face should those people commit new crimes. This
contributed to a further expansion of prison populations. Fourth, as some
observers have noted, the corrections boom created its own growth dynamic.
As ever increasing numbers of people were placed on probation, the
likelihood of probation violations increased. Prison sentences for more and
more violators resulted in larger prison populations. When people who have
been in prison are released, they swell the numbers of those on parole,
leading to a larger number of parole violations, which in turn can still fuel
further prison growth. Statistics show that the number of persons convicted
of violating the criminal law and then sent to prison for at least the second
time has increased steadily, accounting for approximately 35 percent of the
total number of admissions. One analysis of the dramatic increase in
imprisonment, found that it “was not driven by a centralized national-level
strategy for dealing with crime and was not based on a coherent body of
empirical knowledge demonstrating that prisons improved public safety.”
Instead, said the report, “it was the product of layers of legislative decisions,
primarily enacted at the state level, to charge and imprison more oenders,
increase sentences, limit prison releases, and expand” prison capacity. These
decisions led to a new era in which prisons became primary weapons in what
was then seen as the nation’s war on drugs and on crime. 7 8 1/26/25, 4:40
PM The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now? https://prod.reader-
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3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 8/15 U.S. correctional populations
have grown dramatically over the past 40 years, as this image of
incarcerated persons living in a modified gymnasium at the Mule Creek State
Prison in Ione, California, illustrates. What factors led to a substantial
increase in the use of imprisonment in this country beginning in the 1980s?
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do
We Go Now?
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3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 9/15 Turning the Corner in U.S. Prison
Populations While get-tough-on-crime attitudes continue to persist among
signicant segments of American society today, they have largely been
trumped by economic realities. State budgets have been hard pressed to
continue funding prison expansion, and the number of people behind bars
began to show a slow decline beginning around 2010. Alternatives to
imprisonment, most of which will be discussed in coming chapters, are many
and include probation, nes, and community service—to which people who
have been convicted are being sentenced in increasing numbers. In order to
reduce correctional expenditures even further, some states are using forms
of early release from prison, shortening time served, reducing the period of
probation or parole supervision, and shifting the responsibility of supervising
people who have been convicted to county-level governments (and away
from state responsibility). We will examine these innovations at various
places throughout this text. As states grappled with the economic realities of
reduced revenues and constrained budgets beginning in the early 2000s, it
became increasingly important to get the most “bang for the buck,” so to
speak, out of correctional programs. The realization that imprisonment had
become too expensive, combined with a number of other factors, led to a
decline in prison populations. Other reasons for the decline include: 1.
Criminal justice reform policies—Many states have enacted policies aimed at
reducing the use of imprisonment and promoting alternatives to
incarceration, such as drug courts and community supervision programs. 2. A
decrease in crime rates—In recent years, crime rates in the United States
have generally been declining (contrary to what the popular media might
depict), which has contributed to a reduction in the number of people being
sentenced to prison. 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do We Go
Now? https://prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com/epub/sn_9fcdb/data-uuid-
3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 10/15 Page 7 In her incoming
presidential address to the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences, Melissa
Hickman Barlow outlined a plan for the implementation of sustainable
justice. Barlow dened sustainable justice as “criminal laws and criminal
justice institutions, policies, and practices that achieve justice in the present
without compromising the ability of future generations to have the benets of
a just society.” Barlow’s call for aordable justice, based on principles and
operating practices that can be carried into the future without bankrupting
generations yet to come, represents an important turning point in our
nation’s approach to corrections and other justice institutions. These and
other factors have contributed to a reduction in the number of people being
incarcerated in the United States and a growing recognition of the need to
adopt evidence-based policies. As we will see in the next chapter, the
evidencebased movement in corrections seeks to evaluate programs and
services to see which are the most eective relative to their costs. Evidence-
based practices play an important role in correctional administration today—
and should contribute much to the call for sustainable justice and continue to
contribute to a decline in the use of imprisonment. 3. Reforms to sentencing
laws—Some states have passed laws to reduce mandatory minimum
sentences and provide greater discretion to judges in imposing sentences,
which has, in turn, led to fewer people being sentenced to long prison terms.
4. Decarceration initiatives—In response to overcrowding, budget
constraints, and public pressure, some states have implemented initiatives
to safely reduce their prison populations, such as early release programs and
parole reforms. 5. Changes in drug enforcement policies—Some states have
adopted reforms to their drug enforcement policies, such as reducing
sentences for drug oenses and expanding access to treatment, all of which
have reduced the number of people incarcerated for drug-related crimes. 9
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3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 11/15 Correctional Employment As
correctional populations peaked, increasing budgets led to a dramatically
expanding correctional workforce and enhanced employment opportunities
within the eld. Much of that momentum continues into the present day. In
2023, for example, the North Carolina Department of Public Safety oered a
$7,000 hiring bonus for new correctional ocers (COs), and the Tennessee
Department of Corrections provided a $5,000 bonus to newly hired ocers. At
the same time, the Nebraska Department of Correctional Services provided a
bonus of $15,000 for experienced COs (i.e., for those at the rank of corporal
or higher) who were willing to work at the Nebraska State Penitentiary and
other select facilities. According to historical reports, persons employed in
the corrections eld totaled approximately 27,000 in 1950. By 1975, the
number had risen to about 75,000. Estimates published by the Bureau of
Labor Statistics (BLS) in 2021 show that over 400,000 government
employees throughout the United States worked in corrections, with a total
monthly payroll of around $3 billion. BLS also found that the average hourly
and annual wage for COs and jailers was $25.69 and $53,420, respectively.
Of course, supervisors and those at higher rank earned more than the
average. Similarly, those who begin work with college degrees are paid
more. Exhibit 1–3 shows some of the employment possibilities in corrections.
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Corrections 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now?
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3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 13/15 Prisons mean jobs and can
contribute greatly to the health of local economies. Some economically
disadvantaged towns—from Tupper Lake, in the Adirondack Mountains of
upstate New York, to Edgeeld, South Carolina—recently cashed in on the
corrections industry, having successfully competed to become sites for new
prisons. Although prison populations have recently fallen, a number of states
are building new prisons to replace failing prison infrastructure with safer,
more secure facilities that accommodate the rehabilitation of incarcerated
people. In 2021, for example, the state of Alabama announced the planned
construction of two new correctional facilities to be built on state-owned
land. The two new facilities, each designed to hold 4,000 persons in
connement will cost approximately $700 million to build and will contribute
about $30 million a year to the local economy. Academic teacher Activity
therapy administrator Business manager Case manager Chaplain Chemical
dependency manager Children’s services counselor Classication ocer Clinical
social worker Correctional ocer Dietary ocer Drug court coordinator Field
administrator Fugitive apprehension ocer Human services counselor Job
placement ocer Mental health clinician Parole caseworker Parole ocer
Presentence investigator Probation ocer Program ocer Program specialist
Programmer/analyst Psychologist Recreation coordinator Social worker
Statistician Substance abuse counselor Unit leader Victim advocate
Vocational instructor Warden/superintendent Youth services coordinator
Youth supervisor 13 14 1/26/25, 4:40 PM The Carceral State: Where Do We
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Carceral State: Where Do We Go Now? https://prod.reader-
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3cbfff3d52b0488c82db330470afd7a1 15/15
