Great Penal Leap Backward: Incarceration in America From Nixon to Clinton (From New Punitiveness: Trends, Theories, Perspectives, P 3-26, 2005, John Pratt, David Brown, et al., eds. -- See NCJ-210217)

• NCJ Number: 210218
• Author(s): Loic Wacquant
• Date Published: 2005
• Length: 24 pages
• Sale Source: Willan Publishing
• Publication Format: Book Chapter
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This paper examines the United States’ penal revolution over the last three decades with the tremendous push forward in the growth of the prison population and viewed as a significant step backward.

Abstract

By the mid-1970s the United States prison system had begun a startling boom. In 1973, American penal evolution reversed course and the population behind bars underwent exponential growth. During the period 1985 to 1995, the United States accumulated nearly 1 million more inmates at a pace of an additional 1,631 bodies per week. The growth index for combined county, Federal, and State correctional facilities grew from 100 in 1975 to 509 in 2000. Prior to the mid 1970s, the Federal Government professed a downward shift in the prison population with the expanded use of probation, parole, and community sanctions. In this chapter, this great leap backward in the American penal system or the hyperinflation that the United States has experienced from Presidents Nixon to Clinton is examined. Tables, figure, notes, and references