Social inequality and mass imprisonment

Abstract

The paper is dedicated to the analysis of the phenomenon of penal policy of mass imprisonment, which is assumed to be the cause and consequence of increasing social inequalities. The relationship between social inequality, social vulnerability and crime creates complex patterns - direct and indirect mechanisms of interaction that can be observed from different perspectives. Following the idea that deeper social, economic and ideological regroupings and regulations are hidden behind mass imprisonment, the paper investigates the connection between the social position of convicts, penal policy and crime. The neoliberal penalty reform accompanied by the penal policy of mass imprisonment is analyzed in the paper along with the deepening of socio-economic inequality and the reduction of social protection. Criminological approaches also indicate a strong correlation between these factors, emphasizing that they should be investigated through direct and indirect influences that take place in a specific space and time. The most significant disadvantages of unfavorable social environments related to criminal choices and practices are low level of educational activities and achievements, insufficiently structured free time, in one word, lack of social and economic resources that would distance individual self-choices from criminal life options.