Title
Imprisoning Communities : how mass incarceration makes disadvantaged neighborhoods worse / Todd R. Clear.
ISBN
9780195387209 (pbk.)
0195387201 (pbk.)
Imprint
New York : Oxford University Press, 2009, c2007.
Language
English
Description
xv, 255 p. : ill., map ; 24 cm.
Call Number
HV9950 .C55 2009
Summary
"While the effects of going to and returning home from prison are well documented, little attention has been paid to the impact of removal on neighborhoods where large numbers of individuals have been imprisoned. In the first detailed, empirical exploration of the effects of mass incarceration on poor places, Imprisoning Communities demonstrates that in high doses incarceration contributes to the very social problems it is intended to solve: it breaks up family and social networks; deprives siblings, spouses, and parents of emotional and financial support; and threatens the economic and political infrastructure of already struggling neighborhoods. Especially at risk are children who, research shows, are more likely to commit a crime if a father or brother has been to prison. Clear makes the counterintuitive point that when incarceration concentrates at high levels, crime rates in that place will go up. Removal, in other words, has exactly the opposite of its intended effect: it destabilizes the community, thus further reducing public safety." "Demonstrating that the current incarceration policy in urban America does more harm than good, from increasing crime to widening racial disparities and diminishing life chances for youths, Todd Clear argues that we cannot overcome the problem of mass incarceration concentrated in poor places without incorporating an idea of community justice into our failing correctional and criminal justice systems."--
Bibliography, etc. Note
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Series
Studies in crime and public policy.
The problem of concentrated incarceration
Incarceration and crime
The problem of mass incarceration concentrated in poor places
Communities, coercive mobility, and public safety
Death by a thousand little cuts: studies of the impact of incarceration
In their own voices: people in high-incarceration communities talk about the impact of incarceration
The impact of incarceration on community safety
Dealing with concentrated incarceration: the case for community justice
Appendix: Imagining a stragegy of community justice.
