Cages and Crises

A Marxist Analysis of Mass Incarceration

Datos Bibliográficos

ID12673293
AutoresMark Jay (University of California, Santa Barbara, autor de correspondencia)
Año2019
Volumen27
Número1
Páginas182-223
Fecha de publicación2019-03-13
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessNo
TipoARTICLE
RevistaHistorical Materialism (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 1465-4466 • E-ISSN: 1569-206X
EditorialBrill (PUBLISHER • NL)
DOI10.1163/1569206x-00001726
OpenAlexW2921412934
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas8
Referencias citadas26

Since the mid-1960s, the carceral population in the US has increased around 900%. This article analyses that increase from a Marxist framework. After interrogating the theories of Michelle Alexander and Loïc Wacquant, I lay out a theoretical framework for a Marxist theory of mass incarceration. I then offer a historical analysis of mass incarceration in keeping with this theoretical framework, emphasising the carceral system’s relationship to the class struggle and the large-scale economic dislocations of post-Fordism. Finally, I emphasise how private prison companies, increasingly central to the story of mass incarceration, are influencing current efforts to reform the prison system and shift to ‘alternatives to incarceration’

Criminology · Marxist philosophy · Mass incarceration · Political science · Politics · Prison · Prison population · Sociology · Housing, Finance, and Neoliberalism · Law · Political and Economic history of UK and US · Political Economy and Marxism