The Promise of Research to Advance Smart Decarceration

AuthorMatthew W. Epperson,Gina Fedock,Amy Blank Wilson
Date01 January 2021
Published date01 January 2021
DOI10.1177/0093854820977587
Subject MatterArticles
/tmp/tmp-17zFiuF0GYABR6/input 977587CJBXXX10.1177/0093854820977587Criminal Justice and Behaviorepperson et al. / research to advance smart decarceration
article-commentary2020
The Promise of research To advance
smarT decarceraTion

MATTHEw w. EPPERSON
The University of Chicago
AMy BLANk wILSON
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
GINA FEDOCk
The University of Chicago
This paper describes the concept of “Smart Decarceration” and introduces the special issue of Criminal Justice and Behavior
entitled “Research to Advance Smart Decarceration Policies, Programs, and Interventions.” The concept of Smart
Decarceration originated nearly a decade ago as the United States reached a tipping point in mass incarceration, and it focuses
on three interrelated outcomes: substantially reducing the use of incarceration and other forms of punishment; reversing racial
disparities and other inequities in the criminal justice system; and promoting safety and well-being, particularly for com-
munities that have been most impacted by mass incarceration. Ultimately, Smart Decarceration efforts should prioritize
reducing the overall footprint of the criminal justice system, while building capacity outside of the system to support safety,
health, and well-being. Research plays a critical role in advancing Smart Decarceration, as new forms of knowledge and
evidence must be developed to replace ineffective and unjust policies and practices associated with mass incarceration. The
paper discusses approaches to research that move beyond typical criminal justice outcomes and focus on the multifaceted
goals of Smart Decarceration. The six articles in this special issue are introduced, highlighting their foci across ecological
levels and the breadth of the criminal justice continuum, centering populations most impacted by incarceration, and identify-
ing practice and policy innovations.
Keywords: offender; recidivism; criminal justice; justice; incarceration
WhaT is smarT decarceraTion?
The phenomenon of mass incarceration in the United States spans over four decades in
which incarceration rates have grown exponentially and unequally, including dispropor-
tionately high rates for disadvantaged communities and people with marginalized identities.
The result of this more than 600% increase in incarceration is that, on any given day, over
2 million people are incarcerated in a jail or prison in the United States, with more than 12
million people experiencing some form of incarceration on a yearly basis (kaeble et al.,
aUThors’ noTe: Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Matthew W. Epperson,
School of Social Service Administration, The University of Chicago, 969 E. 60th St., Chicago, IL 60637, USA;
e-mail: mepperson@uchicago.edu.

CRIMINAL JUSTICE AND BEHAVIOR, 2021, Vol. 48, No. 1, January 2021, 3 –9.
DOI: 10.1177/0093854820977587
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Article reuse guidelines: sagepub.com/journals-permissions
© 2020 International Association for Correctional and Forensic Psychology
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4 CRIMINAL JUSTICE AND BEHAVIOR
2015; Subramanian et al., 2015). when adding the nearly 5 million people on probation or
parole, the United States has reached the troubling distinction of 1 in 100 adults incarcer-
ated, and 1 in 31 under some form of correctional control in the early 2000s (PewCenter,
2008; Pew Center on the States, 2009). In addition, an estimated 1 in 9 people incarcerated
in prison is serving a life sentence (Nellis, 2017). The reach, breadth, and duration of incar-
ceration and the carceral system are vast.
The scope of mass incarceration is especially egregious given who is most impacted.
Racial disparities abound in the criminal justice system, with Black adults incarcerated at a
rate more than five times that of white adults (Nellis, 2016). Nationally, Latinx adults are
incarcerated at rates of 1.4 times that of white adults, but in some states, the rate is three to
four times as high (Nellis, 2016). Gender and sexual identities are also connected to height-
ened incarceration rates. Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer/questioning
(LGBTQ) youth and adults, and particularly transgender women of color, are at increased
risk of arrest and incarceration (Center for American Progress, 2016). The proportion of
incarcerated people with serious mental illnesses is more than double the rate in the general
population, and people with substance use disorders make up nearly three fourths of those
incarcerated (Fazel & Danesh, 2002; National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at
Columbia University, 2010). Broadening the lens to community effects, in many cities, high
rates of incarceration are concentrated in poorer, predominantly Black and Brown neigh-
borhoods, where millions of dollars of governmental budgets have been spent on incarcera-
tion as opposed to neighborhood resources and supports such as accessible affordable
housing, education, health care, and employment (Lugalia-Hollon & Cooper, 2018). These
inequities in the use of incarceration are perpetuated by a complex entanglement of policies
and practices centered on social control and punishment, the criminalization of health con-
ditions and marginalized identities, and structural oppression and racism. Therefore, mass
incarceration must be contextualized within a critical understanding of historical and cur-
rent systems of power, oppression, and control.
The concept of “Smart Decarceration” originated nearly a decade ago in the midst of
accumulating indicators that the era of mass incarceration may be reaching a tipping
point. Although gradual, there have been steady declines in the overall rate of incarcera-
tion in the United States for the...

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