Title: Incarceration nation
Headings: Incarceration nation
Feature
Incarceration nation
How did we get here?
Who's in prison?
The psychological impact of prison
Policy changes and other solutions
Types of incarceration

Content: The report notes that such disparities in sentencing were caused partly by more severe laws and the war on drugs, as well as "small but systematic racial differences in case processing." For instance, blacks were more likely to be incarcerated before trial, to fare worse in plea agreements that might otherwise have kept them out of prison, to receive the death penalty, and to be arrested and charged with drug crimes, which carry stiff mandatory sentences, the report found. People of color also are more likely to suffer disparities in mental health treatment in general, which results in their being "more likely to be ushered into the criminal justice system," says Tiffany Townsend, PhD, senior director of ethnic minority affairs in APA's Public Interest Directorate. "The rise in incarceration transformed not only the criminal justice system, but also U.S. race relations and the institutional landscape of urban poverty," the report notes. Yet while some studies show U.S. crime dropped as incarceration rates went up, the report found no causal link between the two, Haney says. " It's very clear from our analysis that the reduction in the overall amount of crime is only modestly if at all attributable to the high rate of incarceration," he says, pointing to other countries that have experienced less crime — without high rates of incarceration. Even within the United States, crime rates have varied while the incarceration rate has shot up. For example, the number of people in prison for drugs is 10 times higher today than it was 30 to 40 years ago, yet the amount of drug crime hasn't changed. The psychological impact of prison
In prison, inmates face a variety of challenges that affect their ability to become productive members of society once they leave confinement, the report says. Vocational training and educational programs have not been used as widely as they could be, while re-entry programs and other transitions to the community need improving, the report found.