The End of an Era? Understanding the Contradictions of Criminal Justice Reform

• Author: Emily Knaphus,Anna Reosti,Katherine Beckett
• Published date: 01 March 2016
• Date: 01 March 2016
• DOI: 10.1177/0002716215598973
• Subject Matter: IV. The Future of Decarceration

598973ANN
The Annals of the American AcademyThe End of an Era?
research-article2015
Recent drops in the U.S. rate of incarceration have trig-
gered much discussion regarding the fate of mass incar-
ceration. Some observers suggest that the political
consensus in favor of getting tough on crime has been
shattered and replaced by a new consensus that the
prison population must be downsized. In this article,
we explore the possibility that neither legislation nor
public discourse around crime and punishment has
shifted so dramatically, and that the cultural dynamics
The End of an surrounding reform efforts may undermine the pros-
pects of comprehensive sentencing reform. To assess
Era?
these hypotheses, we analyze trends in criminal justice
policy reform from 2000 to 2013 and newspaper stories
and editorials on criminal justice reform since 2008.
Understanding While we do find important examples of changing
rhetoric and policy, we suggest that these changes do
the
not constitute a “paradigm shift.” Rather, they are
indicative of a more subtle, complex, and contradictory
modification of the way punishment is conceived, dis-
Contradictions cussed, and ultimately enacted.
of Criminal Keywords: mass incarceration; criminal justice
reform; drug war; drug law reform; media
Justice Reform
studies
Although record-setting levels of incarcera-
tion in the United States have been the
norm for decades, the incarceration rate peaked
By
KAThERINE BECKETT,
Katherine Beckett is a professor in the Law, Societies,
ANNA REOSTI,
and Justice Program and the Department of Sociology,
and
and the Clarence and Elissa M. (“Lee”) Schrag Endowed
Faculty Fellow at the University of Washington. Her
EMILy KNAphUS
recent research projects have explored the conse-
quences of criminal justice expansion and legal debt for
social inequality, the role of race in drug law enforce-
ment and the administration of the death penalty, and
the transformation of urban social control practices in
the United States.
Anna Reosti is a doctoral candidate in the Sociology
Department at the University of Washington. Her pri-
mary areas of interest include punishment, stratifica-
tion, and housing policy. Her current research
investigates the discriminatory consequences of tenant
background screening procedures in rental housing.
Correspondence: kbeckett@uw.edu
DOI: 10.1177/0002716215598973
238 ANNALS,
AAPSS, 664, March 2016

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ThE END Of AN ERA?
239
in 2007; by 2013, it had fallen by 9 percent.1 Although modest, this reduction has
nonetheless triggered much discussion regarding the fate of mass incarceration
in the United States. In this context, some observers have suggested that a com-
prehensive reappraisal of the policies and practices that fueled mass incarcera-
tion is afoot. As Dagan and Teles put it, “the political momentum is turning
against our over-reliance on cuffs and cages,” largely as a result of falling crime
rates and “the willingness of conservatives to take a more critical look at our
prison system” (2014, 267). Similarly, in their recent analysis of the complex insti-
tutional and political dynamics surrounding efforts to reduce prison populations,
petersilia and Cullen argue that the hegemony of the old way of thinking about
crime and punishment has been “shattered” and that “virtually everyone” is
“trumpeting the need for downsizing, as though they had not previously fully
embraced prison expansion” (2015, 5).
In this article, we explore the possibility that contemporary public discourse
and legislation regarding crime and punishment are most accurately character-
ized by complexity and contradiction rather than by a comprehensive rejection of
the ideas and policies that fueled mass incarceration. Specifically, we explore the
possibility that many of the ideas, assumptions, and policies that have historically
buttressed mass incarceration persist and continue to enjoy cultural traction. We
also consider the possibility that the cultural dynamics surrounding the reform
process itself may work to legitimate and solidify some of the practices and poli-
cies that fuel mass incarceration.
To assess these hypotheses, we analyze trends in criminal justice policy reform
from 2000 to 2013 through a content analysis of state corrections and sentencing
legislation. We also analyze mainstream newspaper stories and editorials on
criminal justice and correctional reform since 2008. The findings suggest that
contemporary discourse and reform strategies are characterized by contradiction
rather than by an unequivocal rejection of the policies and ideas that have sus-
tained mass incarceration. Moreover, we find evidence that the cultural dynamics
surrounding the reform process may actually reify some of the assumptions,
rhetoric, and images that buttress mass incarceration.
The article is organized as follows. In the next section, we consider the argu-
ment that a comprehensive rejection of mass incarceration is underway, and offer
a brief theoretical account that explains how the criminal justice reform process
itself may reinforce powerful images and assumptions that bolster rather than
challenge mass incarceration. The following sections describe our data and
Emily Knaphus is a doctoral candidate in the Sociology Department at the University of
Washington. Her primary area of interest is the collateral consequences of mass incarceration,
particularly the educational experience of children with incarcerated parents.
NOTE: This material is based on work supported by the National Science foundation under
Grant No. 1456180 and by the National Institute of Justice, Office of Justice programs, U.S.
Department of Justice. The opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed
in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect those of the
Department of Justice.

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240
ThE ANNALS Of ThE AMERICAN ACADEMy
methods, and present our empirical findings. The conclusion offers a summary
of key findings and considers their substantive and theoretical implications.
The End of an Era? A Theoretical Account
of the Contradictions of Criminal Justice Reform
The idea that prison populations have grown too large is increasingly given expression
in public and political venues. for example, one meta-analysis of recent studies of
discourse about punishment found that “readers and viewers of mainstream media
are learning about nationwide efforts to reduce prison populations, about substand-
ard prison conditions, and about the negative consequences of ‘zero tolerance’ school
disciplinary policies, among other things” (Opportunity Agenda 2014, 3). Moreover,
as many have noted, many of the new critics of mass incarceration are politically
conservative; the emergence of these Right on Crime critics of mass incarceration
marks an important shift in the political landscape (Dagan and Teles 2014).
At the policy level, too, changes are apparent. Drug policy reform is especially
widespread: more than half the states have adopted significant drug law reforms
in recent years. for example, in 2004 and again in 2009, New york State revised
its notorious Rockefeller drug laws (Greene and Mauer 2010). More recently,
Michigan abolished its automatic life without parole (LWOp) sentence for those
convicted of selling 650 grams or more of cocaine or heroin, and Texas notably
expanded diversion options for drug possessors (Greene and Mauer 2010;
Subramanian and Moreno 2014). Many states have also adopted parole reforms
that enable eligible inmates to earn “good time” credits in order to accelerate
their release dates and/or reduce the number of technical violators who are
returned to prison (Greene and Mauer 2010; Subramanian and Moreno 2014).
Moreover, these recent drug and parole reforms have made a dent in prison
admissions in many states. Overall, admissions to state prisons for drug offenses
fell by 24.7 percent between 2006 and 2011 (Bureau of Justice Statistics [BJS]
2013, Table 4). Similarly, prison admissions stemming from parole revocations
dropped by 36.5 percent between 2007 and 2012 (BJS 2013, Table 1). And
although federal policy reform has been comparatively slow in coming, recent
legislation such as the Smarter Sentencing Act of 2014 has the potential to nota-
bly reduce the number of people serving time in federal prison for drug offenses.
There is, then, considerable evidence that the criminal justice zeitgeist is in
flux and that meaningful criminal justice reform is under way. On the other hand,
sociolegal scholarship provides ample reason to suspect that once created, mass
incarceration may prove difficult to reverse, even with the enactment of mean-
ingful reforms. There are several reasons for this. In some cases, reforms simply
trigger adaptation by institutional actors. for example, following the Supreme
Court’s invalidation of vagrancy and loitering statutes, local authorities across the
country created novel social control tools that enabled them to regulate the
movement of the socially marginal but are comparatively difficult to challenge in
the courts2 (Beckett and herbert 2010). Similarly, the Supreme Court’s 1972

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ThE END Of AN ERA?
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Furman v. Georgia decision—in which the Court determined that the adminis-
tration of capital punishment violated several constitutional protections—trig-
gered the widespread adoption of...