The US incarceration machine

Abstract

The American criminal justice has long exerted a substantive impact on UK crime control policy. Issues such as the privatisation of criminal justice,'three strikes and you're out' (mandatory minimum prison sentencing), curfews and electronic monitoring ('tagging') all have their roots in US criminal justice. Our Europe-leading imprisonment rate appears positively puny compared to the USA's muscular embrace of mass incarceration. There is substantial evidence that US criminal justice system exerts a disproportional impact upon African Americans. Mass incarceration cannot proceed without immense social and economic resources. The penal system is the USA’s second biggest employer, with around three quarters of a million staff. It costs taxpayers $70 billion dollars each year.