Punishment and inequality in America / Bruce Western.

Includes bibliographical references (pages [213]-233) and index.

Introduction -- part I: The scope and causes of the prison boom. Mass imprisonment / with Becky Petit -- Inequality, crime, and the prison boom -- The politics and economics of punitive criminal justice -- part II: The consequences of mass imprisonment. Invisible inequality -- The labor market after prison -- Incarceration, marriage, and family life / with Leonard Lopoo -- Did the prison boom cause the crime drop? -- Conclusions.

Over the last thirty years, the prison population in the United States has increased more than sevenfold to over two million people, including vastly disproportionate numbers of minorities and people with little education. For some racial and educational groups, incarceration has become a depressingly regular experience, and prison culture and influence pervade their communities. Almost 60 percent of black male high school dropouts in their early thirties have spent time in prison. In Punishment and Inequality in America, sociologist Bruce Western explores the recent era of mass incarceration and the serious social and economic consequences it has wrought. Punishment and Inequality in America dispels many of the myths about the relationships among crime, imprisonment, and inequality. While many people support the increase in incarceration because of reductions in crime in the 1990s, Western shows that the swelling prison population only explains one-tenth of the fall in crime, and has come at a significant cost. Punishment and Inequality in America reveals a strong relationship between incarceration and severely dampened economic prospects for former inmates.

The recent explosion of imprisonment is exacting heavy costs on American society and exacerbating inequality. Whereas college or the military were once the formative institutions in young menʼs lives, prison has increasingly usurped that role in many communities. Punishment and Inequality in America profiles how the growth in incarceration came about and the toll it is taking on the social and economic fabric of many American communities. Book jacket