The Old Jim Crow: Racial Residential Segregation and Neighborhood Imprisonment

Mass imprisonment is one of the most important policy changes the United States has seen in the past forty years. In 2011, 1.6 million people, or 1 in 200 adults, in the U.S. were in prison (Guerino, Harrison, and Sabol 2011). Understanding the factors that affect neighborhood imprisonment rates is particularly important for improving the quality of life in disadvantaged communities. This paper examines the impact of one such factor, racial residential segregation, on imprisonment rates at the neighborhood level.

Reference Information

Author: 

Traci Burch
Publisher: 
Stanford Center on Poverty and Inequality
Publication Date: 
April 2014