@article{321890,
      recid = {321890},
      author = {Western, Bruce,},
      title = {Punishment and inequality in America /},
      publisher = {Russell Sage,},
      address = {New York :},
      pages = {xiv, 247 p. :},
      year = {2007},
      abstract = {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.},
      url = {http://library.usi.edu/record/321890},
}