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Reactions to Deviance 177

Figure 6.2 How Much Is Enough? The Explosion in the
Number of U.S. Prisoners

2,000
1,900
2009 was the peak of
1,800 incarceration, with
1,615,000 prisoners
1,700
1,600 1,598,000
1,500 1,391,000
Number of federal and state prisoners (in thousands) 1,200 774,000
1,400
1,300

1,100
1,000
900
800
700
600
500
400
316,000
300 196,000
200
100
0
1970 1980 1990 2000 2010 2020
Year
Between 1970 and 2011, the U.S. population increased 52 percent, while the number of prisoners increased
715 percent, fourteen times faster than population growth. If the number of prisoners had grown at the same
rate as the U.S. population, we would have about 298,000 prisoners, about one-fifth of today’s total. Or if the
U.S. population had increased at the same rate as that of U.S. prisoners, the U.S. population would be
1,465,000,000—more than the population of China.
Sources: By the author. Based on Carson and Sabol 2012; Statistical Abstract of the United States 1995:
Table 349; 2013:Tables 2, 6, 354. The broken line is the author’s estimate.

With the state and federal governments running out of money, severe complaints about
taxes, and an easing of the enforcement of marijuana laws, I predict that this decrease
is not temporary. The broken line on this figure gives a rough indication of what the
future might look like.
Who has been put in our prisons? Let’s compare the prisoners with the U.S. popula-
tion. As you look at Table 6.3 on the next page, several things may strike you. Close Read on MySocLab
Document: Beyond Crime and
to half (46 percent) of all prisoners are younger than 35, and almost all prisoners are Punishment: Prisons and Inequality
men. Then there is this remarkable statistic: There are more African American pris-
oners than there are white prisoners. On any given day, one out of every nine African
American men ages 20 to 34 is in jail or prison. For Latinos, the rate is one of twenty-
six; for whites, one of one hundred (Warren et al. 2008).
Finally, note how marriage and education—two of the major ways that society
“anchors” people into mainstream behavior—keep people out of prison. About