Ethnoracial Prison Ghetto in the United States

Ethnoracial Prison Ghetto in relation to Crime and Race

Ethnoracial Prison Ghetto is included in the Encyclopedia of Race and Crime (1), beginning with: The concept of the ghetto as an ethnoracial prison is intended to call attention to the relationships between the processes of ghetto prisonization and prison ghettoization. Ghetto prisonization refers to the process by which the ghetto has come to resemble a penal institution in which residents are segregated from the larger society and denied the privileges possessed by those outside. The related term— prison ghettoization —relates to the transformation of the penitentiary from a correctional institution guided by rehabilitative ideals to a prison “warehouse” characterized by cyclical oppression through racial divisiveness, miseducation, and violence within the prison walls. More specifically, incapacitation as a means of punishment operates like a ghetto in that it separates certain groups (overwhelmingly Black men and now, increasingly, Black women) from the larger society and keeps them confined but controlled by the larger societal apparatus.

Resources

Notes and References

1. Entry about Ethnoracial Prison Ghetto in the Encyclopedia of Race and Crime

See Also