Race, Class, and Gender in U.S. Correctional Institutions

Introduction

Today, the United States incarcerates more than 25% of low-income young Black males, so it is reasonable to suggest that there is an inextricable relationship between race, socioeconomic class, gender, and the institutional correctional community. It is also reasonable to suggest that this relationship has a corresponding impact on clients, staff, and the administration of correctional institutions. To determine the facts, this paper reviews the relevant literature to identify the role of race, class, and gender within the institutional correctional community and the impact of these variables on clients, staff, and administration. An analysis of the impact of race, class, and gender on current correctional institutions is followed by a summary of the research and important findings in the conclusion.

The Role of Race, Class, and Gender in Correctional Settings

There are several reciprocating factors involved in analyzing the role of race, class, and gender within the American institutional correctional community, wherein prisoners have an impact on staff and correctional institutions and vice versa. On the one hand, the institutional correctional community plays an important role in shaping a significant percentage of American society through the manner in which prisoners are incarcerated and through their eventual reintegration into the larger society following release. As Vitulli (2010) reports, "The criminal justice system and prison system play a central role in the production of race, citizenship, gender, and sexuality in the contemporary United States" (p. 53). Because a disproportionate percentage of prisoners in the United States are minority members — especially African Americans — the prison system plays a significant role in the socialization of millions of incarcerated Americans. As Vitulli notes, "With over two million people in U.S. jails and prisons and over seven million people under U.S. correctional supervision — well over half of whom are people of color, the criminal justice system is an important site of U.S. social formation" (p. 54).

On the other hand, the variables of race, class, and gender have contributed substantially to swelling prison populations with male minority members, and African-American males in particular. The legacy of racism as a lingering aftereffect of slavery in the United States continues to manifest in contemporary criminal justice outcomes. American correctional institutions are faced with a difficult balancing act in administering minority populations that have grown substantially in recent decades. In this regard, Mauer advises that, "By the early twenty-first century, the number of African-Americans within the criminal justice system had reached unprecedented levels. Nearly half of the inmates in the nation's prisons were African-American, compared to their 13% share of the population" (2006, p. 137).

This incarceration rate meant that one out of every 14 adult African-American males was incarcerated on any given day in the United States at the turn of the century (Mauer, 2006). For young Black men, the prospects were even grimmer. For the African-American male group aged between 20 and 29 years, nearly 25% was involved in the criminal justice system in some capacity — imprisoned, in jail, on parole, or on probation — in 1989 (Mauer, 2006). Just six years later, a follow-up study determined that the percentage had grown to nearly 33%, and Black males born in 2001 had a 32% chance of being incarcerated at some point during their lives, compared to 17% for Hispanic males and 6% for white males (Mauer, 2006).

This disproportionate percentage of incarcerated African-American males is attributable in part to historically higher arrest rates experienced by this population. For example, Mauer (2006) notes that during a period when actual drug use was declining nationwide, the percentage of young Black men arrested for drug-related charges increased from 21% in 1980 to 36% in 1992 before declining modestly to 32% in 2000. Despite this modest decline, Grusky (2014) emphasizes that, "By the early 2000s, prison time was a common life event for this group, and today more than two-thirds of African-American male dropouts are expected to serve time in state or federal prison" (p. 438).

It remains unclear whether these higher arrest levels were due to racial profiling or other factors, but research indicated that African-American households did not use drugs any more frequently than any other demographic segment in the United States during these periods (Mauer, 2006). According to Parker (2008), most explanations advanced to date to account for higher incarceration rates among minority members have examined the role of the law enforcement community and increased emphasis on violent crime but have not differentiated adequately between race, gender, and class. As Parker points out, "Most explanations to date are given without consideration of race and gender differences in crime trends, when we know that the duration and degree of the crime drop differs greatly for distinct groups" (2008, p. 29). These disproportionate demographic trends in incarceration have had a concomitant impact on the clients themselves, as well as on the staff and administration of institutional correctional facilities.

Impact on Clients, Staff, and Administration

The disproportionately high incarceration rates for minority groups in general and young African-American males in particular have had an enormous impact on their relationship to the larger American society and to the correctional facilities tasked with their custody. Grusky (2014) emphasizes that, "These demographic contours of mass imprisonment have created a new class of social outsiders whose relationship to the state and society is wholly different from the rest of the population" (p. 438). Because they are social outsiders within the larger population, it is little wonder that many minority members seek protection through prison gang membership after incarceration. As Grusky points out, "The social and economic effects of incarceration create a discrete social group whose collective experience is so distinctive yet unknown that their disadvantage remains largely beyond the apprehension of public policy or public conversation" (2014, p. 438).

Horton (2013) cites the increasing compartmentalization of racial groups in prisons into gangs as one significant impact of race and gender dynamics. Williams (2014) notes that racial segregation in prisons is visible in housing arrangements, with colored signs distinguishing inmate quarters by race, and that inmate yard times are sometimes racially segregated as well (p. 37). Maintaining racial segregation in the nation's prisons may appear to be a pragmatic response to an otherwise untenable situation, but the implications for inmates can be far more severe than prison authorities might anticipate (Williams, 2014). Horton documents a clear "relationship between violence, norms, and culture as former inmates perceive it and issues of racial segregation, gangs, prison sex and rape, and interpersonal conflict among inmates more generally" (p. 109). Although gang membership and gang-related violence are frequently associated strictly with male prisoners, Horton (2013) also emphasizes that both men and women can become serious management problems for prison staff, noting that "both male and female inmates [act] as active agents who try to control their environment by curbing the disruptive behavior of others, sometimes with the use of violence" (2013, p. 108).

For all intents and purposes, prison life is as close to living on a hostile and alien planet as most people in American society will ever experience. Many minority group members and women arrive from already disadvantaged and impoverished backgrounds, and this marginalization is further exacerbated upon incarceration. Grusky reports that, "Social marginality is deepened by the inequalities produced by incarceration. Workers with prison records experience significant declines in earnings and employment" (2014, p. 438). Imprisoned parents of both genders are also at much higher risk of divorce, and children of imprisoned parents are exposed to the hardships of the criminal justice system during visits or through witnessing what a parent endures on parole or probation (Grusky, 2014). The overwhelming majority of Americans remain simply unaware of what conditions are like in a typical prison, as these realities remain largely hidden behind prison walls (Grusky, 2014).

The impact of large percentages of minority group members behind bars is multifaceted. Among the more pronounced effects on clients is the inculcation of a sense of isolation in a strange and frightening environment and the corresponding need to establish solidarity with similar individuals in ways that contribute to gang proliferation. Gavazzi (2006) notes that, "The enormous rise in the rates of imprisonment in the adult population has generated an increased appreciation of the criminal justice system's impact on the family, especially regarding the deleterious effects of incarceration on family stability and the ability to parent" (p. 191). The impact on prison staff and administration includes higher demands to manage gang-related violence and drug trafficking (National Gang Threat Assessment 2011: Emerging Trends, 2011).

Prisoners with gender-related identity issues represent a special concern for prison staff. Individuals who are undergoing or seeking a sex-change procedure may be at particular risk of having their medical needs go unfulfilled within the correctional system. Vitulli (2010) reports that, "The diagnosis of gender identity disorder is difficult and takes time, because it requires differentiating between individuals who are homosexual or transvestite, and those who are truly suffering from gender identity disorder" (p. 55). Another gender-related administrative challenge is the fact that individuals can change their decisions regarding sex reassignment, creating additional health care and administrative complications, or they may experience depressive episodes that can result in suicidal ideation and attempts (Vitulli, 2010).

Conclusion

The research shows that race, class, and gender play an important role within the institutional correctional community, with lower-income Black males being at especially high risk of becoming involved with the correctional system at some point in their lives. The high rates of incarceration for these and other male minority members have created significant management challenges for prison staff, most notably gang-related violence and drug trafficking. These variables were also shown to have a significant impact on prisoners themselves as well as on prison staff and administration.

Although female prisoners tend to be treated less harshly compared to their male counterparts, the research consistently indicates that irrespective of gender, race and socioeconomic class profoundly affect both the likelihood of incarceration and the nature of relationships between inmates and prison staff once incarcerated. There have also been meaningful changes in the demographic composition of prison staff, with more women and minority members securing correctional positions in recent years compared to the era before the 1972 Title VII amendments that provided equal employment opportunity in the correctional field.

In the final analysis, it is reasonable to conclude that the current disproportionate incarceration rates for minority group members in general and young African-American males in particular will persist unless deliberate steps are taken to identify the root causes of these trends and to eliminate these disparities in incarceration rates across the United States.

References

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Grusky, D. B. (2014). Social stratification: Class, race, and gender in sociological perspective. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.

Horton, A. D. (2013, Winter). Enforcing the convict code: Violence and prison culture. Canadian Journal of Sociology, 38(1), 108–119.

Mauer, M. (2006). Race to incarcerate. New York: The New Press.

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Vitulli, E. (2010, Spring). Racialized criminality and the imprisoned trans body: Adjudicating access to gender-related medical treatment in prisons. Social Justice, 37(1), 53–61.

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