The Impact of Mass Incarceration on Social Workers

1. Why Mass Incarceration Matters to Social Workers or…The Importance of Reckoning with the History of, and Wrestling with the Present-Day Impact of, the Carceral State on the Ground and in the Trenches Dr. Heather Ann Thompson Department of African American Studies Department of history Temple University

2. Mass Incarceration By 2008 • Number of Americans in prison: 2,424,279 • Number of Americans under some form of correctional supervision: 7.3 million • Number of Americans with a criminal record: 47 million… • By 2011…roughly 65 million Americans have a record

3. Race Matters, 2004

4. Race Matters, 2008

5. Race and Gender Matter Incarceration Rate/100,000

6. Today’s Criminal Justice System • Does Mass Incarceration Matter?

7. Today’s Criminal Justice System • Does Mass Incarceration Matter? • YES

8. The Role of the Social Worker: Possibilities and Responsibilities • Criminal justice social workers serve as frontline staff and administrators in criminal justice settings. The criminal justice system encompasses a broad spectrum of public and private agencies, and settings including (but not limited to): • State and federal correctional facilities • City and county jails • Federal, state, and city parole and probation agencies • Federal, state, and local court systems (including drug courts and mental health courts) • Community-based nonprofit agencies serving ex-offenders or reentrants • Faith-based agencies • Primary health and behavioral health care providers serving low-income people, including ex-offenders Roberts & Springer, 2007

9. Recommendations of the National Association of Social Workers: • Address issues surrounding and leading to disproportionate rates of incarceration for individuals of racial or ethnic minorities, juveniles, women and undocumented individuals. • Increased participation of professional forensic social workers and other mental health providers to assure culturally competent treatment and intervention for the growing population of incarcerated individuals, including mental health and substance abuse services. • Assure safe, humane and equitable treatment for all incarcerated individuals. • Increase access to health care, educational and vocational opportunities to assist incarcerated individuals with transitioning back to their communities

10. The Role of the Social Worker? • The ethical challenge to social workers is to weigh the needs of the justice system against those of the offender. The social worker should take on the challenge by participating in legislative action to mold social policy to create a balance between the justice system and the offender. Thus, the social worker can help the justice system provide more effective services to the offender, their families, and their communities as professionals by participating in the process of public policy development Roberts & Springer, 2007 • While offenders are under the supervision of the criminal justice system, a unique opportunity exists to intervene in the offender’s lifestyle to reduce future criminal behavior • Case management for criminal justice populations connects offenders with the specific services and counseling they need to resist substance abuse relapse and to break the cycle of criminal behavior Kerry Murphy Heale, 1999

11. Understanding and Undoing the Carceral Crisis • Mass Incarceration…the Big Picture

12. Understanding and Undoing the Carceral Crisis • Why Carceral Crisis?

13. Origins • The “Criminalization of Urban Space”

14. Mass Incarceration Matters: The Issue of Crime

15. Mass Incarceration Matters: The Issue of Crime

16. Mass Incarceration Matters: The Issue of Crime LBJ and the Origins of the War on Crime • Law Enforcement Assistance Act, 1965 • President's Commission on Law Enforcement and Administration of Justice, 1965 • District of Columbia Crime Bill, 1967 • Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act, 1968

17. Mass Incarceration Matters: America’ Cities

18. Mass Incarceration Matters: America’s Schools

19. Mass Incarceration Matters: America’s Youth 2007: 6,568 arrests per 100,000 youths aged 10-17 in United States

20. Mass Incarceration Matters: America’s Youth

21. Understanding and Undoing the Carceral Crisis • The Impact of Carceral Crisis

22. Mass Incarceration Matters: America’s Communities of Color “Million Dollar Blocks”

23. Mass Incarceration Matters: the Orphaning of a Generation(s) 2000: 1,498,800 children with at least one parent in state or federal prison 2002: 1 in every 45 minor children with at least one parent in state or federal prison 2008: 1,706,600 children with at least one parent in state or federal prison (majority under age 10)

24. Mass Incarceration Matters Jobs and Welfare…

25. Mass Incarceration Matters • The Hidden Costs of Mass Incarceration

26. Mass Incarceration Matters • The Undermining of the American Economy (for those who work for a living…)

27. Mass Incarceration Matters: The American Economy • Federal Prisons minor to major players in productive labor and consumer labor market • Example: recycling computers for various companies

28. Mass Incarceration Matters: The American Economy • Increase in work done on site in state prisons by existing state prison industries • Example: making lockers, cleaning chemicals, office furniture, etc.

29. Mass Incarceration Matters: The American Economy • Explosion of brand new contracts between prisons and private companies • Example: Dell, Victoria’s Secret, Starbucks, McDonalds, Eddie Bauer, etc.

30. Mass Incarceration Matters: The American Economy • Brand new age of prison privatization for profit • Example: Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), Wackenhut, etc.

31. Mass Incarceration Matters: The American Economy • By the close of the 20th century…. 80,000 inmates holding “traditional jobs working for government of private companies…”

32. Mass Incarceration Matters: The American Economy “Our core business touches so many things—security, medicine, education, food service, maintenance, technology—that it presents a unique opportunity for any number of vendors to do business with us” --Irving Lingo, CFO, Corrections Corporation of America

33. Mass Incarceration Matters: The American Economy • The Bigger Economic Picture

34. Mass Incarceration Matters • Mass Incarceration and the Distortion of American Democracy

35. Mass Incarceration Matters: The Distortion of American Democracy 1974: Richardson v. Ramirez 2006: 48 out of 50 states have a disfranchisement law on the books

36. Rethinking Region

37. States With Highest and Lowest Black-to-White Ratio Incarceration Highest • Iowa 13.6 • Vermont 12.5 • New Jersey 12.4 • Connecticut 12.0 • Wisconsin 10.6 Lowest • Hawaii 1.9 • Georgia 3.3 • Mississippi 3.5 • Alabama 3.5 • Arkansas 3.9

38. Mass Incarceration Matters: The Distortion of American Democracy Democracy?

39. Mass Incarceration Matters: The Rise of the Right in Postwar America The U.S. Census….

40. Mass Incarceration Matters: The Rise of the Right in Postwar America • 25.49% census population is from non-voting prison population • Real population: 25,204/21,939 white • Considered a “red” (primarily conservative republican) county. • Supported Reagan 1980 • supported George W. Bush in the previous two presidential elections Lassen County, California Los Angeles County

41. Mass Incarceration Matters: The Rise of the Right in Postwar America

42. Distorting Democracy and Silencing Communities of Color

43. So, Mass Incarceration matters….

44. Ending the Carceral Crisis Lessons from the Past, Possibilities for the Future • Education • Advocacy and Agitation • Resistance