The Imprisonment Binge in America

Many people are under the impression that the United States prison system is meant to punish those who have committed acts against the law. Although this is true, it has been proven that as a whole, the country has become exponentially more punitive, sentencing individuals at a far greater rate than in decades before. Nicola Lacey explains in American Imprisonment in Comparative Perspective that America is on an imprisonment “binge”. Until 1980, 110 people per 100,000 individuals were behind bars whereas today the numbers are increased to 740 people per 100,000. We live in a society of mass incarceration in which 1 out of every 100 adults are currently incarcerated. For a comparative perspective, America accounts for 5% of the world’s population while also accounting for 25% of the world’s incarcerated population. It is clear by the numbers that something has happened within the last thirty years to drastically increase the use of punishment. There are different explanations for the imprisonment binge in America, however the effects of incarceration on individuals, and consequences of penal practices have become a growing social problem. The extremely racialized incarceral system not only diminishes family life and distorts democracy, but also outcasts ex-convicts by discriminating them educationally and black-listing them from many everyday activities in society. Now more than ever, social circumstances effect one’s likelihood to be involved with crime and the criminal justice system as a whole. Class, Race and Hyperincarceration in Revanchist America by Loic Wacquant argues that mass incarceration does not exist in the United States, rather hyperincarceration, or finely targeting incarceration by class, race and place. This method of categorization associates imprisonment with poor, African American males. This triple selectivity of class, race and place is the reason Wacquant believes we have an absurd criminal justice system in the United