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56 Stan. L. Rev. 1271 (2003-2004)
The Social and Moral Cost of Mass Incarceration in African American Communities

handle is hein.journals/stflr56 and id is 1285 raw text is: THE SOCIAL AND MORAL COST OF MASS INCARCERATION IN AFRICAN AMERICAN COMMUNITIES Dorothy E. Roberts* INTRODUCTION: REFRAMING THE ISSUE OF RACE AND IMPRISONMENT .............. 1272 A. The Distinctive Features of African American Mass Incarceration.......... 1274 1. Total numbers incarcerated.................................................................... 1274 2. Rate of incarceration.............................................................................. 1274 3. The spatial concentration of incarceration ........................................... 1275 B. The New Direction of Prison Research...................................................... 1276 1. Assessing the harm of mass incarceration v. identifying the cause of racial disparities................................................................................................... 1277 2. Community v. individual as the focus of research ................................. 1279 I. THEORIES OF COMMUNITY HARM.................................................................... 1281 A. Mass Imprisonment Damages Social Networks......................................... 1281 B. Mass Imprisonment Distorts Social Norms ............................................... 1285 C. Mass Imprisonment Destroys Social Citizenship ....................................... 1291 1. Felon disenfranchisement....................................................................... 1291 2. Labor m arket exclusion ......................................................................... 1293 3. Civic isolation......................................................................................... 1294 II. THE MORAL SIGNIFICANCE OF COMMUNITY HARM ....................................... 1297 A. Moving Beyond the Prison-Crime Nexus................................................... 1297 B. Mass Imprisonment and Political Subordination ...................................... 1298 C. Rethinking the Justifications for Punishment............................................. 1300 CONCLUSION....................................................................................................... 1304 * Kirkland and Ellis Professor, Northwestern University School of Law; faculty fellow, Institute for Policy Research. Matthew Lyon provided excellent research assistance for this Article. I presented a draft of this Article at workshops at the Institute for Policy Research and Florida State University College of Law and am grateful to participants for their comments. I also thank participants in the Stanford Law Review Symposium on Punishment and Its Purposes, especially my copanelists Paul Butler and Pamela Karlan, for their insights. 1271