Did mass incarceration lead to the disproportionate admission of minorities and marginal offenders?

• Date: 01 November 2020
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/1745-9133.12521
• Published date: 01 November 2020
• Author: Andrew T. Krajewski,Richard B. Felson

DOI: ./- .

SPECIAL ISSUE ARTICLE

TACKLING DISPARITY IN THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM

Did mass incarceration lead to the

disproportionate admission of minorities

and marginal offenders?

Richard B. Felson Andrew T. Krajewski

Department of Sociology and

Criminology, Pennsylvania State

University

Correspondence

RichardB. Felson, Department of Sociol-

ogyand Criminology, The Pennsylvania

StateUniversity,  Oswald Tower,State

College,PA .

Email:rbf@psu.edu

Theauthors would like to thank Franklin

Zimringand William Sabol for their feed-

backon earlier drafts, and the anonymous

reviewersand the editors for their feedback

duringthe review process.

Research Summary: We examine the effects of mass

incarceration on the admission of minority and marginal

(i.e., first-time) offenders to state prisons. Our analyses

are based on six wavesof data from the Survey of Inmates

in State and Federal Correctional Facilities from  to

. The results suggest that the era of mass incarcer-

ation led to increased incarceration of Hispanic offend-

ers relative to White offenders, but not Black offenders

relative to White offenders. Disproportional incarcera-

tion did occur, however, during some periods. For exam-

ple, during the early period of mass incarceration, there

was a disproportional increase in the admission of His-

panics and marginal offenders. In the late s, during

the “War on Drugs,” the likelihoodthat admissions were

Black or Hispanic drug offenders increased, but the like-

lihood that admissions were marginal offenders did not.

Policy Implications: Our results provide further evi-

dence of the perils of punitive policies. The tendency to

overreact to crime problems sometimes, but not always,

leads to the disproportionate incarceration of minority

and marginal offenders.

KEYWORDS

first-time offenders, mass incarceration, race and ethnicity

Criminology & Public Policy. ;:–. ©  American Society of Criminology 1209wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/capp

1210 FELSON  KRAJEWSKI

At the end of the twentieth century, the United States experienced a substantial growth in the

number of individuals who were incarcerated. According to Blumstein and Beck (), this

growth was the product of punitive policies that increased the likelihood of arrest, incarceration,

and the amount of time served. In terms of prison admissions, new court commitments increased

from about , individuals to about , individuals between  and  (Carson &

Golinelli, ;Langan,; see also Guerino, Harrison, & Sabol, ;West&Sabol,).

Some scholars have suggested that this “mass incarceration” led to a disproportionateincrease

in the incarceration of Blacks and Hispanics (e.g., Alexander,; Chambliss, ;Mauer,;

Nunn, ; Roberts, ; Tonry, ; Wacquant, ). They claimed that the increase was

particularly strong for drug offenses. It has also been argued that the era led to a dispropor-

tionate increase in the incarceration of marginal or minor offenders, i.e., offenders who were

not career criminals or violent offenders (Chambliss, ; Roberts, ;Zimring,,,

). According to these perspectives, prisons were being increasingly populated by marginal

offenders, minority offenders, and marginal minority offenders who were not dangerous to

others.

Any increase in incarceration will have a greater impact on groups with greater exposure to

the criminal justice system. The era of mass incarceration must have had a greater effect on

minority communities because of their higher crime rates (Morgan & Truman, ;Steffens-

meier, Feldmeyer, Harris, & Ulmer, ) and because of preexisting disparities in the response

of the criminal justice system (e.g., Rojek, Rosenfeld, & Decker, ; Steffensmeier, Ulmer, &

Kramer, ;). Our focus, however, is on changes in the distribution of inmate characteristics.

The question is whether mass incarceration had a disproportionate effect on minorities over and

above preexisting disproportionalities. The impact of earlier discrimination and preexisting dif-

ferences are not under consideration. If mass incarceration era policies targeted minorities, as

some theorists have suggested (see below), then one would expect to observe changes in the

racial/ethnic composition of prison admissions over time. Note that this approach focuses on rela-

tive change and not absolute differences between groups. While the literature on the composition

of inmate populations is based on changing ratios, the literature based on ratessometimes focuses

on changes in absolute differences. Note that absolute differences are affected by preexisting

disparities.

In this research, we use data from the Survey of Inmates in State and Federal Correctional

Facilities to examine how the characteristics of offenders admitted to state prisons changed

between  and . We focus on changes in admissions rather than changes in the popula-

tion of inmates. An examination of the inmate population underestimates variationacross time by

including inmates who have been influenced by policies implemented years before. It also leads

to an oversampling of inmates who received longer sentences, either due to having committed

more serious offenses or having more extensive criminal histories (see Pfaff, ).

We attempt to determine: () whether the odds an inmate was a minority increased during

the era of mass incarceration; () whether the changes were greater for drug offenses than for

other offenses; () whether any increase in the odds an inmate was a marginal offender (i.e.,

an offender who had never been incarcerated before) was greater for minority inmates; and

() whether the changes in the odds were greater for minority drug offenders than for White

drug offenders. We also consider the possibility that demographic changes or variation in the

relative crime rates of different groups across this time period produced the observed patterns.

We begin by reviewing Franklin Zimring’s (,,) description of the era of mass

incarceration and then discuss claims made by other scholars about disproportional effects on

minorities.