Mass Incarceration Sociology

Pager’s (2003) American Journal of Sociology article characterizes mass incarceration as the steady increase in U.S inmates, for increasing reasons coupled with increased sentences. The American Civil Liberties Union’s (2016) article, “What’s at Stake” juxtaposes America’s most famous theme, “Home of the Free” to the current state of mass incarceration experienced in the African American community. African Americans only comprise 13% of the United States population, yet they account for 40% of the prison population (United States Census, 2015). Additionally, one in every fifteen African American men are imprisoned when compared to only one in every one hundred and six white men (United States Census, 2015). The American Journal of Public Health reports startling Bureau of Justice statistics which estimate the incarceration rate among African American males is approximately 95% in Washington D.C. (Hatzenbuehler, et al., 2015). Long after the end of segregation many African Americans believe racism is manifested through mass incarceration. What effects of mass incarceration lends credence to the notion that racism still exist? Racism is evident in the discriminatory consequences of mass incarceration in the African American population …show more content…
Today, 72% of African American children are raised by single mothers as opposed to a nucleus family (CNN, 2013). Contributing to the epidemic is the fact that African American men account for 4 out of every10 men incarcerated. A Stanford Law Review article (2004) written by Dorothy Roberts reports on the social and moral cost of mass incarceration. Her findings suggest mass incarceration damages social networks that begin with black males and females, extends to children and end with decreased social capital in the African American