While my research interests are specialized in policing, I usually teach a broader set of classes. They include “Theories of Crime and Criminality” (i.e., criminology”) and “Survey of Criminal Justice” (i.e., introduction) in addition to undergrad and graduate-level classes on “American Police” and “Police & Society”, respectively. I enjoy teaching the first two, particularly Survey/Intro since it is usually students first exposure to quality and rigorous information on the criminal legal/justice system for majors/minors as well as those taking the class as an elective.
The Survey/Intro class tries to strike a nice balance of breadth and depth with a focus on topics like: the political nature of crime control, policing, courts and sentencing, institutional corrections, probation/parole, offender reentry, crime control outside of the formal legal/justice system (e.g., communities, schools), etc.
I try my best to keep current on all of these areas, but admittedly it is difficult (there’s so much to read and consume for my policing research agenda and I have personal life with a wife and two small children both under 3). I rely quite a bit on the Bureau of Justice Statistics’ publication series, The Sentencing Project, and The Prison Policy Initiative, among other sources, for somewhat updated big-picture trends in the areas that I’m more deficient in.
I recently came across The Prison Policy Initiative’s “Punishment Beyond Prisons 2023” report. It covers raw numbers and rates of both incarceration AND community supervision in the US and across all 50 states. Upon reading the report and curious about how my home state of New Jersey stacked up, I was surprised. But I’d like to back up a bit.
Community corrections like probation and parole, IMO, are neglected aspects of our criminal legal/justice system. Policing, mandatory minimums, mass incarceration, and racial/ethnic disparities in sentencing and jail/prison populations are more likely to capture the general public’s attention. How many students ever report that they aspire to be probation or parole officers when they graduate? Close to none – in fact, I don’t think I’ve ever had a student say that probation/parole was their dream job. For them, it’s either law enforcement (particularly federal) or law and/or graduate school. Most probation and parole officer jobs require a four-year degree.
Why do we neglect community corrections? In 2022, the most recent year that BJS’ “Correctional Populations in the US” has available, only one-third of all adults under criminal justice supervision (i.e., not “free” to do and live as they would like without restrictions) are locked up in state/federal prisons or jails (1,827,600). Two-thirds are monitored and supervised in the community on probation or parole (3,668,800). We are missing a huge piece of the punishment pie when exclusively focusing and reporting numbers/rates on institutional corrections. In fact, this often-missing piece makes our already high rate of incarceration – from an international comparison – look even worse. Rather than focus on mass incarceration, shouldn’t we do a better job of broadening the discussion to “mass punishment”?
Back to how New Jersey stacks up with incarceration and mass punishment. There is wide variation in rates of incarceration across US states. New Jersey is often viewed as a blue state with a liberal or even progressive correctional system. After all, it had the 5th lowest prison rate in the county in 2022 with 137 people in prison per 100,000 (compared to a US prison rate of 355 per 100,000).
While fewer people are locked up, this does not necessarily translate into reduced institutional corrections expenditures. Correctional officers in the state make decent money, so prison expenditures are high. According to a Vera Institute of Justice report, as of 2015, New Jersey spends an average of $61,603 per inmate per year. This ranks 4th highest out of the 45 states that reported data and nearly double the national average of $33,274 per inmate per year.
Still, 5th lowest prison rate in the country is something to be proud of right? Here is where community corrections and PPI’s “Punishment Beyond Prisons” resource comes in handy. Turns out, New Jersey relies on community corrections quite a bit with approximately 120,000 people on probation and another 15,000 on parole.
Here’s some commentary from PPI: “Looking closely at state variations in the use of various forms of correctional control reveals just how differently states mete out punishments; in particular, states vary tremendously in their use of community supervision. For example, New Jersey, a so-called ‘progressive’ state below the national average of 566 per 100,000 residents when it comes to incarceration, is among the most punitive in the nation when you look at its full system of correctional control. Among the 50 states and D.C., New Jersey ranks 20th in mass punishment, subjecting 1,712 per 100,000 of its residents to confinement or community supervision.”
PPI continues: “Considering each state’s total mass punishment system leads to other insights: Residents of New Jersey (1,712 per 100,000 under correctional control) are more than twice as likely to be caught up in their state’s mass punishment system compared to New York residents (830 per 100,000).”
Much different picture than 5th lowest prison rate in the US that is slightly lower than New York’s rate of 159 per 100,000.
Mass punishment gets us closer to understanding the truer nature of the size/scale, cost, and racial/ethnic disparities of our full correctional system. We should pay more attention to is. Let’s start using PPI’s “Punishment Beyond Prison” in our research, teaching, and public discourse. I look forward to incorporating it into my Survey/Intro classes next semester!