Presidents and Mass Incarceration
Subtitle: Choices at the Top, Repercussions at the Bottom
By: Linda K. Mancillas Ph.D.
Edition: 1st ed.
Publisher: Praeger
Published: 2023
Place of publication: Westport, CT
Language: eng
Number of pages: 232
ISBN-13: 9798216000839
Subjects: Politics & government
Description: Taking an innovative approach to the subject, this book looks at how U.S. presidents and their administrations' policies from the late 1960s to 2017 have led to rampant over-imprisonment and a public policy catastrophe in the United States.  Mandatory minimum sentencing; "three-strikes-and-you're-out" legislation; harsher sentences and less parole and probation. The result of draconian criminal justice policies in the last six decades is that the United States is the largest incarcerator in the world, surpassing Russia and China, with significant overrepresentation of African Americans and Latinos in U.S. prisons, especially for low-level, nonviolent drug offenses.  Presidents and Mass Incarceration: Choices at the Top, Repercussions at the Bottom shows how American presidents from Lyndon B. Johnson to Donald J. Trump have operated as significant political criminal justice entrepreneurs and how the leadership choices made at the top by these chief executives continue to have severe repercussions for the citizens at the lowest levels of our communities. Author Linda K. Mancillas references State of the Union Addresses, presidential initiatives, laws passed by Congress, Supreme Court decisions, and public opinion on high-profile crime events to assemble a cohesive framework of data that supports each president's impact on the incarceration explosion. Readers will come away with a greater appreciation for the complexity and magnitude of the political, economic, and societal issue of over-imprisonment that both the federal and state governments are attempting to address.
Table of contents: title: Preface Acknowledgments Chapter 1 Introduction: The Politics of U.S. Mass Incarceration Chapter 2 President Johnson's Safe Streets: The First Federal Anti-Crime Entrepreneur Chapter 3 President Nixon's Crime and Drug Wars: Bleeding-Heart Liberals and Lawlessness Chapter 4 President Ford Goes Victims' Rights and President Carter Goes Soft on Crime Chapter 5 President Reagan Declares All-Out War on Crime and Drugs Chapter 6 President George H. W. Bush Follows President Reagan's Lead Chapter 7 President Clinton's Three Strikes and You're Out Chapter 8 President George W. Bush: Homeland Security and the War on Terrorism Chapter 9 President Obama's New Law and Order: Illegal Immigration, Private Prisons, and Executive Orders Chapter 10 President Trump: Law and Order, Politics of Fear, Alternative Facts, and the Rule of Law Chapter 11 Conclusion: Choices at the Top, Devastating Repercussions at the Bottom Bibliography Index