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Racial Inequality, Social Policy and Prisons: 1980-2000. Glenn C. Loury, Merton P. Stoltz Professor of the Social Sciences Brown University. A Radical Transformation of Policy. States’ Prison Spending Grows faster than Higher Ed.
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Racial Inequality, Social Policy and Prisons: 1980-2000 Glenn C. Loury, Merton P. Stoltz Professor of the Social Sciences Brown University
States’ Prison Spending Grows faster than Higher Ed According to a 2002 report of the Justice Policy Institute (Washington, DC): • “During the 1980s and 1990s, state spending on corrections grew at 6 times the rate of state spending on higher education, and by the close of the 1990’s, there were nearly a third more African American men in prison and jail than in universities or colleges.”
Coloring the Terms of Membership:Reinventing the Divided Citizenry in an Era of Neoliberal Paternalism Joe Soss & Sanford F. Schram
Public Policy and Racial/Ethnic Disparities Distributive Disparities: who gets more or less, and why Civic Disparities: how groups are positioned in relation to one another and vis-à-vis major societal institutions The Social Question: How can solidarity (or inclusive and equal membership) be achieved in a society divided by ethnic identities as well as material inequalities? How do public policies organize governance and define terms of membership for different social groups?
Civic Incorporation as a Goal of Poverty Policy Europe • Unemployment and welfare dependence as problems of “social exclusion” • Labor activation as a strategy for incorporation into the societal “mainstream” United States (The New Paternalism) • Social dysfunction, behavioral pathology, and personal disorganization as sources of societal marginality • “Telling the Poor What to Do” (Help and Hassle) • Directive, supervisory, and punitive policies • Supports to enable preferred behavior
Race and Civic Disparities in the History of Public Aid Mothers’ Pensions • White Republican Motherhood, Assimilation of Immigrants, Exclusion of Blacks and Latinas Social Security Act of 1935 (ADC) • White male breadwinner: full citizen incorporated into national social insurance • State and local public aid: regulating labor markets, gender roles, and racial caste War on Poverty (1960s) • Meaningful legal citizenship for racial minorities • Racial conflict promoted and undermined poverty efforts
The New Poverty Governance: Change in Numbers Incarcerated and Receiving Cash Aid:1990-2000
Result Is Disparate Positioning in the TANF Program: Exposure to Program Features by Race of Family, 2001
Effects are Cumulative:Stringency of Policy Regime by Race of Family, 2001
Not Just Rule Exposure, Also Local Implementation 1. Racial Disparities in Sanctioning across Length of Spell2. Race-Specific Mediation by Local Political Environment
Mid-1960s: a policy long racialized in practice becomes racialized in media coverage and in the public mind Correlation: r = .03 (1950-65) r = .68 (1966-96)
Race Matters: The Effect of Black Caseload Percentage on Welfare Policy Choices in an “Average State”
Drug Prices, Emergency Treatment and Incarceration Rates: 1980-2000