Since the mid-1970s, the United States has experienced an enormous rise in incarceration
and accompanying increases in returning prisoners and in postrelease community …

This article examines the origins of US mass incarceration. Although it is clear that changes
in policy and practice are the proximate drivers of the prison boom, researchers continue to …

Comparative historical methods are used to explain the transformation of the US penal order
in the second half of the 20th century. The analysis of multiple state-level case studies and …

This article combines insights from historical research and quantitative analyses that have
attempted to explain changes in incarceration rates in the United States. We use state‐level …

Law and neuroscience (sometimes neurolaw) has become a recognized field of study. The
advances of neuroscience are proving useful in solving some perennial challenges of legal …

This study analyzes prison admission and crime data to assess whether the penal system's
response to crime has continued to intensify since mass incarceration's peak and whether …

Because the American states operate under balanced budget requirements, increases in
spending in one area typically entail equal and opposite budget cuts in other programs. The …

Racial inequalities in criminal justice are pressing problems for policymakers. Prior literature
suggests elected officials promulgate punitive, racially disparate criminal justice policies due …

I examine the political consequences of prison development in the United States. I theorize
that the prison apparatus not only upholds a system of racial hierarchy and class …

Over the last several decades, law and social science scholars have documented persistent
racial inequality in the United States. This review focuses on mechanisms to explain this …