Understanding Incarceration

How much do you know about the carceral system?

The war on drugs is the main driver of incarceration rates that have grown fivefold since 1972.

We exaggerate the role of drugs. Only 16% of those locked up in state prisons are there for drug crimes. The declaration and escalation of the War on Drugs marked a moment in our history when a group of people defined by race and class was defined as the “enemy.”

Source: https://www.themarshallproject.org/2017/02/

Private prisons are the corrupt heart of mass incarceration.

Less than 9% of all incarcerated people are held in private prisons; the vast majority are in publicly owned prisons and jails. Nevertheless, a range of private industries and even some public agencies continue to profit from mass incarceration but they’re a small piece of the pie.

Source: https://www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/pie2020 .html

Prisons are “factories behind fences” that exist to provide companies with a huge slave labor force.

Only about 5,000 people in prison—less than 1% —are employed by private companies through the federal PIECP program, which requires them to pay at least minimum wage before deductions. But prisons do rely on the labor of incarcerated people for food service, laundry, and other operations, and they pay incarcerated workers unconscionably low wages. However, private companies using prison labor are not what stands in the way of ending mass incarceration, nor are they the source of most prison jobs.

Source:https://www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/pie2020 .html

People in prison for violent or sexual crimes are too dangerous to be released.

Recidivism data do not support the belief that people who commit violent crimes ought to be locked away for decades for the sake of public safety. People convicted of violent and sexual offenses are actually among the least likely to be rearrested, and those convicted of rape or sexual assault have rearrest rates 20% lower than all other offense categories combined.

Source: https://www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/pie2020 .html

You should be afraid, very afraid. Crime is rising and innocent people—children, women, White people, White women especially—are the victims. The perpetrators are people of color, especially Black men. They are not like us. They are bad, lazy, undeserving people. Crime and violence are part of their culture

We believe all people are fully human and deserving of dignity and fairness. We need to create a justice system that is fair to everyone, including people of color, women, LGBTQ people, and other historically marginalized groups.

Source: https://humanimpact.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/CJPH-Narrative-Development_Toolkit.pdf

Punishment, retribution, and revenge deter crime. In fact, not punishing those who commit crime is immoral. Rehabilitation doesn’t work.

To improve safety, the justice system must make people whole again. It must give people the chance to be responsible for what they did wrong and accountable for repairing the harm they caused.

Source: https://humanimpact.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/CJPH-Narrative-Development_Toolkit.pdf

Those who commit violent crime are especially undeserving, and we should show no sympathy toward them.

We believe all people are fully human and deserving of dignity and fairness. We need to create a justice system that is fair to everyone.

Source: https://humanimpact.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/CJPH-Narrative-Development_Toolkit.pdf

DOMINANT NARRATIVE

COUNTER NARRATIVE

Facts About Incarceration

2.3 million people are locked up in more than 6,000 correctional facilities operated by thousands of agencies.

Source: https://www.prisonpolicy.org/factsheets.html

Today, people of color make up 37% of the U.S. population but 67% of the prison population. Overall, in the US, Black people are more likely than white people to be arrested; once arrested, they are more likely to be convicted; and once convicted, they are more likely to face stiff sentences

Source: https://www.sentencingproject.org/criminal-justice-facts/

The rate of women’s incarceration has grown at twice the pace of men’s in recent decades, and has disproportionately been located in local jails.

Source: https://www.prisonpolicy.org/factsheets.html

Women of color are significantly overrepresented in the criminal justice system. Black women represent 30% of all incarcerated women in the U.S, although they represent 13% of the female population generally Hispanic women represent 16% of incarcerated women, although they make up only 11% of all women in the US.

Source: https://www.aclu.org/other/facts-about-over-incarceration-women-united-states

People who have spent time in prison suffer the greatest losses, with their subsequent annual earnings reduced by an average of 52 percent.

Source: https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/conviction-imprisonment-and-lost-earnings-how-involvement-criminal

Women are the fastest growing segment of the incarcerated population, with more than one million women behind bars or under the control of the criminal justice system.

Source: https://www.aclu.org/other/facts-about-over-incarceration-women-united-states

Over 1.5 million children have a parent in prison.

Source: https://www.aclu.org/other/facts-about-over-incarceration-women-united-states

More than 8.3 million children have a parent under correctional supervision (e.g., probation and parole), and more than one in five of these children is under five years old.

Source: https://www.aclu.org/other/facts-about-over-incarceration-women-united-states

Resources on Incarceration

The following resources on broadening participation in STEM education and careers have been recommended by STEM-OPS partners.

Podcasts

SySTEM Impacted Podcast (from Princeton Prison Teaching Initiative, hosted by Chri stopher Etienne)
70 Million (from Lantigua Williams & Co., hosted by Mitzi Miller)
Broken Justice (limited series from PBS News Hour, hosted by Amna Nawaz & Frank Carlson)
Caught: The Lives of Juvenile Justice (from WNYC Studios, hosted by Kai Wright)
About Race (from and hosted by Reni Eddo-Lodge)
Code Switch (from NPR, hosted by Gene Demby & Shereen Marisol Meraji)

Videos

It’s a Hard Truth, Ain’t It (Documentary by Madeleine Sackler)
Just Mercy (Film by Destin Daniel Cretton)
Last Days of Solitary (Documentary by Dan Edge)
Life on Parole (Documentary by Matthew O’Neill)
Policing the Police (Documentary by James Jacob)
Prison State (Documentary by Dan Edge)
Second Chance Kids (Documentary by Ken Dornstein)
Stickup Kid (Documentary by Caitlin McNally)
The Black Power Mixtape: 1967–1975 (Documentary by Göran Hugo Olsson)
The Central Park Five (Documentary by Ken Burns, David McMahon, & Sarah Burns)
The New Asylums (Documentary by Miri Navasky & Karen O’Connor)
The Prison in 12 Landscapes (Documentary by Brett Story)
The Released (Documentary by Miri Navasky & Karen O’Connor)
They Call Us Monsters (Documentary by Ben Lear)
Tutwiler (Documentary Short by Alysia Santo)
When Kids Get Life (Documentary by Ofra Bikel)

Organizations

Blogs

Black Girl Dangerous (Mia McKenzie)
Confronting Anti-Black Racism (PBS LearningMedia, K-12)
Raising Race-Conscious Children: A Resource for Talking about Race with Young Children

View All Resources

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