Newswise — BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- The United States imprisons more people than any other country. It has more than 2 million people in prisons and jails and another 7.2 million on probation, parole or under deportation orders -- a situation that some scholars refer to as the "carceral state."
In a new special issue of the Journal of American History, historians explore the forces that led to mass incarceration and its implications for urban spaces, politics, distribution of government resources, race, gender and other factors of American life.
The quarterly journal is published by the Organization of American Historians, based at Indiana University Bloomington. Guest editors for the special June 2015 issue are Kelly Lytle Hernández, associate professor of history at UCLA; Khalil Gibran Muhammad, director of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture (and a former IU faculty member); and Heather Ann Thompson, professor of history at the University of Michigan.
"Social scientists often point out that the 'collateral consequences' of policing and confinement are infinite," the editors write in the introduction. "Most notably, policing and punishment and detention and deportation powerfully shape the U.S. economy and American democracy."
For example, African-Americans make up 72 percent of the federal prison population and over half of state prison populations. By the end of this year, the editors write, one in three young black men and one in six young Latino men will be locked away. Three million children have at least one parent in jail. Forty-eight states permanently or temporarily deny felons the right to vote.
The journal includes over a dozen scholarly articles addressing topics related to incarceration, including the imprisonment of African-American women, youth detention facilities, the prisoner rights movement, the impact of the War on Drugs, the deportation of immigrants, and the relationship between Lyndon Johnson's Great Society and the rise of the carceral state.
Two articles are by Indiana University Bloomington faculty members:
-- In "Flocatex and the Fiscal Limits of Mass Incarceration," Alex Lichtenstein argues that historians must ground the modern carceral state in the post-1965 political economy. He focuses on the Sunbelt region where the prison boom was centered, including Florida, California and Texas, which he dubs Flocatex. Lichtenstein is an associate professor of history at IU Bloomington.-- In "Objects of Police History," Micol Seigel pushes historians to consider the full breadth of U.S. police practice. Challenging the idea that policing is defined by the beat officer, she tracks the Office of Public Safety, which dispatched officials across national borders to develop police forces. Seigel is an associate professor of American studies and history at IU Bloomington.
In the JAH Podcast for June 2015, Ed Linenthal, executive editor of the journal, discusses the special issue on incarceration with guest editors Kelly Lytle Hernández and Heather Ann Thompson. Recent podcasts, full text of articles and other features are available at the Journal of American History website.
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