At no time in history, and certainly in no other democratic society, have prisons been filled so quickly and
to such capacity than in the United States. And nowhere has this growth been more concentrated than in the disadvantaged--and
primarily minority--neighborhoods of America's largest urban cities. In the most impoverished places, as much as
20% of the adult men are locked up on any given day, and there is hardly a family without a father, son, brother,
or uncle who has not been behind bars.
While the effects of going to and returning home from prison are well-documented, little attention has been paid
to the impact of removal on neighborhoods where large numbers of individuals have been imprisoned. In the first
detailed, empirical exploration of the effects of mass incarceration on poor places, Imprisoning Communities demonstrates
that in high doses incarceration contributes to the very social problems it is intended to solve: it breaks up
family and social networks; deprives siblings, spouses, and parents of emotional and financial support; and threatens
the economic and political infrastructure of already struggling neighborhoods. Especially at risk are children
who, research shows, are more likely to commit a crime if a father or brother has been to prison. Clear makes the
counterintuitive point that when incarceration concentrates at high levels, crime rates will go up. Removal, in
other words, has exactly the opposite of its intended effect: it destabilizes the community, thus further reducing
public safety.
Demonstrating that the current incarceration policy in urban America does more harm than good, from increasing
crime to widening racial disparities anddiminished life chances for youths, Todd Clear argues that we cannot overcome
the problem of mass incarceration concentrated in poor places without incorporating an idea of community justice
into our failing correctional and criminal justice systems.