Abstract
The United States currently has the highest incarceration rate in the world. At present, there are some 2.3 million people in American prisons and jails—a 500% increase over the last four decades. In this introduction to the Handbook of Issues in Criminal Justice Reform in the United States, we will review how tough crime policies have exacerbated racial inequity and poverty, leading to mass incarceration and bringing the criminal justice system to a breaking point. Bringing together experts from diverse disciplines, we propose a holistic framework for reforming the criminal justice system focusing on five main domains: (1) policing; (2) policy/sentencing; (3) reentry; (4) treatment; and (5) alternatives to incarceration. This introduction will conclude with a review of seminal reform issues that will address the five domains of the Handbook.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Adams, B. L. (2018). Paternal incarceration and the family: Fifteen years in review. Sociology Compass, 12(3), Article e12567. https://doi.org/10.1111/soc4.12567
Bonnie, R. J., & Scott, E. S. (2013). The teenage brain: Adolescent brain research and the law. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 22(2), 158–161. https://doi.org/10.1177/0963721412471678
Brown, T. N., Bell, M. L., & Patterson, E. J. (2016). Imprisoned by empathy: Familial incarceration and psychological distress among African American men in the National Survey of American Life. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 57(2), 240–256. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022146516645924
Chandler, R. K., Fletcher, B. W., & Volkow, N. D. (2009). Treating drug abuse and addiction in the criminal justice system: Improving public health and safety. Journal of the American Medical Association, 301(2), 183–193. https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2008.976
DeFina, R., & Hannon, L. (2013). The impact of mass incarceration on poverty. Crime & Delinquency, 59(4), 562–586. https://doi.org/10.1177/0011128708328864
DeGue, S., Fowler, K. A., & Calkins, C. (2016). Deaths due to use of lethal force by law enforcement: Findings from the National Violent Death Reporting System, 17 U.S. States, 2009-2012. American Journal of Prevention Medicine, 51(5S3), S173–S187. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amepre.2016.08.027
Ghandnoosh, N. (2018). Can we wait 75 years to cut the prison population in half? The Sentencing Project. https://www.sentencingproject.org/publications/can-wait-75-years-cut-prison-population-half/
Gramlich, J. (2018, May 2). America’s incarceration rate is at a two-decade low. Pew Research Center. https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/05/02/americas-incarceration-rate-is-at-a-two-decade-low/
Hirschtritt, M. E., & Binder, R. L. (2017). Interrupting the mental illness–incarceration-recidivism cycle. JAMA, 317(7), 695–696. https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2016.20992
Horowitz, J. (2018, October 31). 1 in 55 U.S. adults is on probation or parole. Pew Charitable Trusts. https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/articles/2018/10/31/1-in-55-us-adults-is-on-probation-or-parole
James, N. (2015). Offender reentry: Correctional statistics, reintegration into the community and recidivism. Congressional Research Service. https://fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/RL34287.pdf
Kaeble, D., & Alper, M. (2020). Probation and parole in the United States, 2017–2018. Bureau of Justice Statistics, U.S. Department of Justice. https://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/ppus1718.pdf
Levchak, P. J. (2021). Stop-and-frisk in New York City: Estimating racial disparities in post-stop outcomes. Journal of Criminal Justice, 73, Article 101784. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcrimjus.2021.101784
Looney, A., & Turner, N. (2018). Work and opportunity before and after incarceration. The Brookings Institution. https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/es_20180314_looneyincarceration_final.pdf
McCarthy, P., Schiraldi, V., & Shark, M. (2019). The future of youth justice: A community-based alternative to the youth prison model. US Department of Justice, National Institute of Justice. https://www.ojp.gov/pdffiles1/nij/250142.pdf
Miller, J. (2015). Contemporary modes of probation officer supervision: The triumph of the “synthetic” officer? Justice Quarterly, 32(2), 314–336. https://doi.org/10.1080/07418825.2013.770546
Nellis, A. (2016). The color of justice: Racial and ethnic disparity in state prisons. The Sentencing Project. https://www.sentencingproject.org/publications/color-of-justice-racial-and-ethnic-disparity-in-state-prisons/
NYCLU. (2020). Stop-and-frisk data. https://www.nyclu.org/en/stop-and-frisk-data
Phelps, M. S. (2011). Rehabilitation in the punitive era: The gap between rhetoric and reality in U.S. prison programs. Law & Society Review, 45(1), 33–68. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-5893.2011.00427.x
Porter, N. D. (2021). Top trends in state criminal justice reform, 2020. The Sentencing Project. https://www.sentencingproject.org/publications/top-trends-in-state-criminal-justice-reform-2020/
Rabuy, B., & Kopf, D. (2015). Prisons of poverty: Uncovering the pre-incarceration incomes of the imprisoned. Prison Policy Initiative. https://www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/income.html
Ruhland, E. L. (2020). Social worker, law enforcer, and now bill collector: Probation officers’ collection of supervision fees. Journal of Offender Rehabilitation, 59(1), 44–63. https://doi.org/10.1080/10509674.2019.1671571
Sawyer, W., & Wagner, P. (2020, March 24). Mass incarceration: The whole pie. Prison Policy Initiative. https://www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/pie2020.html
Taxman, F. S. (2012). Probation, intermediate sanctions, and community-based corrections. In J. Petersilia & K. Reitz (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of sentencing and corrections. Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199730148.013.0000
Tewksbury, R., Erickson, D. E., & Taylor, J. M. (2000). Opportunities lost. Journal of Offender Rehabilitation, 31(1–2), 43–56. https://doi.org/10.1300/J076v31n01_02
The Sentencing Project. (n.d.). Criminal justice facts.https://www.sentencingproject.org/criminal-justice-facts/
Wagner, P., & Bertram, W. (2020, January 26). “What percent of the U.S. is incarcerated?” (And other ways to measure mass incarceration). Prison Policy Initiative. https://www.prisonpolicy.org/blog/2020/01/16/percent-incarcerated/
Walker, S. C., & Herting, J. R. (2020). The impact of pretrial juvenile detention on 12-month recidivism: A matched comparison study. Crime & Delinquency, 66(13–14), 1865–1887. https://doi.org/10.1177/0011128720926115
Western, B. (2019). Poverty, criminal justice, and social justice. IRP Focus, 35(3), 3–13. https://www.irp.wisc.edu/wp/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Focus-35-3b.pdf
Westervelt, E., & Baker, L. (2020, February 25). America’s mental health crisis hidden behind bars. NPR. https://www.npr.org/2020/02/25/805469776/americas-mental-health-crisis-hidden-behind-bars
Widra, E. (2021, February 3). How much have COVID-19 releases changed prison and jail populations. Prison Policy Initiative. https://www.prisonpolicy.org/blog/2021/02/03/january-population-update/
Wildeman, C., Goldman, A. W., & Lee, H. (2019). Health consequences of family member incarceration for adults in the household. Public Health Reports, 134(1_suppl), 15S–21S. https://doi.org/10.1177/0033354918807974
Winkelman, T. N. A., Chang, V. W., & Binswanger, I. A. (2018). Health, polysubstance use, and criminal justice involvement among adults with varying levels of opioid use. JAMA Network Open, 1(3), Article e180558. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2018.0558
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2022 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Jeglic, E.L., Calkins, C. (2022). Introduction: The Need for Criminal Justice Reform. In: Jeglic, E., Calkins, C. (eds) Handbook of Issues in Criminal Justice Reform in the United States. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-77565-0_1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-77565-0_1
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-77564-3
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-77565-0
eBook Packages: Law and CriminologyLaw and Criminology (R0)