Marked: Race, Crime, and Finding Work in an Era of Mass Incarceration

Pager’s study opens at a critical moment in prison history: the 1970s. Incarceration rates were declining in the US before this time, largely because of its detrimental effects. A 1967 report by the President’s Commission on Law Enforcement and Administration of Justice reveals that negative views of incarceration went as far up as the federal government:

‘Life in many institutions is at best barren and futile, at worst unspeakably brutal and degrading […] The conditions in which [prisoners] live are the poorest possible preparation for their successful reentry into society, and often merely reinforces in them a pattern of manipulation or destructiveness’ (1).

The National Advisory Commission of Criminal Justice Standards and Goals echoed these sentiments in a 1973 report, describing prisons as having a “‘shocking record of failure’” (1). The former commission promoted community-based alternatives to incarceration for juvenile and adult offenders, while the later commission recommended ceasing the construction of new prisons for adults and closing all juvenile detention centers. Despite these recommendations, incarceration rates began rising in the early 1970s, a trend that continued for the next 30 years and led to the US having the world’s highest incarceration rates (2). Punishment replaced ideals of rehabilitation, while calls for decarceration and community-based supervision gave way to “tough on crime” policies.