Lecture 20: Comparative Penology - United States Flashcards
What characterizes the U.S. political economy?
Neo-liberalism
What is the U.S. approach to social welfare benefits?
Minimal means-tested
What best describes economic inequality in the U.S.?
High
What is the U.S. Congress comprised of?
A bicameral legislature
What characterizes the U.S. Supreme Court?
Political appointees
What was the average prison sentence length in the U.S. in 2017?
9 years
When were federal sentencing guidelines introduced in the U.S.?
1980s
What contributed to longer sentences under the 1994 Crime Act?
- Mandatory minimums
- Three strikes law
What ruling confirmed 25 years to life under three strikes laws is constitutional?
Ewing v California
What reforms have California voters supported?
- Reducing non-serious third strikes
- Reclassifying felonies as misdemeanors
How many U.S. states impose life without parole (LWOP) sentences?
49
What purpose do extremely long sentences in the U.S. serve?
Expressing outrage
Approximately what percentage of prisoners in the U.S. are people of color?
43%
What type of U.S. prison houses pre-trial detainees?
County jails
What differentiates supermaximum security prisons in the U.S.?
Solitary confinement
What Supreme Court case confirmed supermax conditions are constitutional?
None
What is a key effect of felony disenfranchisement in the U.S.?
Loss of voting rights
What percentage of African Americans in the U.S. are disenfranchised (not allowed to vote)?
16%
Which practices makes reintegration more difficult after release?
- Stigma
- Housing restrictions
What factor encourages increased punitiveness and spending on prisons?
Special interests
What rhetoric promotes conflictual partisan politics on criminal justice issues?
Liberal leniency
What percent of Americans are disenfranchised from voting due to prior felony convictions?
2.3%
What gave rise to the first American supermax prison for high risk prisoners?
Alcatraz closure
What Supreme Court ruling upheld sex offender registration laws as constitutional?
Smith v Doe
What characterized politics on criminal justice issues in the U.S.?
Polarisation
What key force shocks public opinion on criminal justice?
Victims’ families
What Supreme Court case barred juvenile life without parole?
Miller v Alabama
What helps explain the expansion of U.S. prison populations since the 1980s?
- Higher crime rates
- Stricter drug laws
- Longer sentences
What is not a purpose of solitary confinement in supermax prisons?
Rehabilitation
What is seen to encourage the ‘prison industrial complex’ in the U.S.?
Public-private partnerships
What is the ‘prison-industrial complex’?
The interconnection between the CJS, political system and economic system - profit from incarceration
What is a supermax prison?
- For ‘the worst of the worst’
- Brutalist design
- 23 hours of solitary confinement
Why are people of color disproportionately affected by growth in imprisonment?
- Higher recidivism rates
- Concentrated urban poverty
- Underlying racism in the legal system
What has the government’s ‘war on drugs’ contributed to since the 1980s?
Racial disparities in imprisonment
What helped lobby for passage of the 1994 Crime Act?
- Prison guard unions
- Gun manufacturers
- Victims advocacy groups
What makes U.S. imprisonment rates the highest in the world?
Harsh sentencing laws
What do comparative studies show about the use of imprisonment in different countries?
It indicates societal values on punishment
