{"title":"The Criminalization of Poverty","authors":"C. Larrison","doi":"10.1093/OSO/9780190937232.003.0008","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/OSO/9780190937232.003.0008","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter examines the criminalization of poverty and how the criminal justice system is influenced by issues of race and gender. The high rate of incarceration among African American people both parallels and intersects with the disproportionately high rate of poverty. Small fines, fees, and administrative charges have been used since the founding of the United States (U.S.) to perpetuate such poverty, thereby creating an intergenerational feature rooted in the history of this country’s legal system. To wit, the smallest of fees and fines can become cumulative over time and create substantial financial burdens that increase the likelihood of prison time for minor infractions of the law, loss of a vehicle used to maintain employment, and denial of access to federal and state programs ranging from federally supported education loans to access to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistant Program. Moreover, the increasing trend toward work requirements attached to assistance programs effectively stunts individuals’ and families’ opportunity for upward social mobility, exacerbating social stratification. Social workers should advance reformation efforts using a structuralist approach.","PeriodicalId":214540,"journal":{"name":"Social Work, Criminal Justice, and the Death Penalty","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-10-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"116861576","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Going, Going, Gone","authors":"M. Bookman","doi":"10.1093/OSO/9780190937232.003.0001","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/OSO/9780190937232.003.0001","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter explores the diminishing use of the death penalty in the United States in the modern era. During the early 1800s, executions were practically celebrations, with merchants selling souvenirs and alcohol to thousands of onlookers. Such spectacles, which often included cursing at the widow and tearing down the scaffold and cutting the rope, prompted states to require private hangings. By the middle of the century, a majority had determined that executions were bringing out the worst in its citizenry. Despite excessive costs, bad lawyering, discrimination, procedural mistakes, and horrifyingly botched killings, execution in the United States persists—for now. Although 60% of the states and the federal government continue to maintain the policy, only a small percentage of states are actively pursuing executions.","PeriodicalId":214540,"journal":{"name":"Social Work, Criminal Justice, and the Death Penalty","volume":"32 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-10-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"127276936","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Mass Incarceration","authors":"M. Robinson, Sharon E. Moore, A. C. Adedoyin","doi":"10.1093/OSO/9780190937232.003.0009","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/OSO/9780190937232.003.0009","url":null,"abstract":"The chapter begins with an overview of the growth of the prison population from the end of the civil war to the Obama administration. The authors describe all of the structural inequalities African Americans faced that stymied their growth economically and socially as a people, and subsequently led to the mass incarceration of Black men. The authors discuss the historical underpinnings of the factors that lead to mass incarceration and how these factors ultimately fueled the prison-industrial complex. The chapter also discusses the ways in which the Black Church contributes to the rehabilitation of former incarcerated persons, and, lastly, the authors discuss the implications for social work education.","PeriodicalId":214540,"journal":{"name":"Social Work, Criminal Justice, and the Death Penalty","volume":"11 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-10-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"114583782","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}