Mass Incarceration  

CrimCast is a podcast that provides a conversational overview of recent criminology trends and issues--including interviews with criminologists, criminal justice practitioners, and activists.  The podcast is specifically designed for laypersons, students, and anyone wishing to be engaged in current crime-related events and dialogue.  We provide information about peer-reviewed research articles to augment the discussion and for further reading.

The effects of mass incarceration impacts not only those who are behind bars but it also affects the rest of society.  What are the issues surrounding this complex issue?  This guide provides resources that allows the student to explore this issue from all sides.  Presented in a user-friendly format, this is a one-stop tool to resources that have been screened for information that is reliable.

The definition of the term "mass incarceration" is hard to find.  One way to approach it is to break up the words.  Mass as an adjective is defined according to Webster's New World College Dictionary as "b) of a large number of persons". Incarceration is the noun form of the verb  incarcerate which is defined in the same dictionary as  "to imprison; jail. 2) to shut up; confine."  We can then deduct that the term refers to the imprisonment of a large number of persons.  Because the United States has the highest rate of imprisonment in the world, this has become an issue of great concern.  Our whole punitive system is being re-evaluated.