Reformist Interventions and Social Inequality

• In Event: Proving Responsibility and Deservingness at the Pretrial Stage

Abstract

Across the United States, criminal jurisdictions are seeking out tools to reduce the social and financial costs of incarceration. Among the most popular reforms are programs that promise rehabilitation and service delivery as alternatives to pretrial detention or criminal conviction. These programs mandate a wide range of activities, including community service hours, electronic monitoring, mental health treatment, and classes on topics such as anger management. Many people are required to participate in more than one reformist intervention—as we will refer to these activities—simultaneously, and they can interact and conflict in unexpected ways. Because these interventions determine legal outcomes for a large share of defendants, they have important implications for social inequality. But research on their use and consequences is limited. Drawing on 100 in-depth interviews with people assigned to participate in these interventions, we examine the economic, social, and legal impacts of participation and how those impacts vary across social groups.

Authors

• Mary Ellen Stitt, University at Albany, SUNY

• Gabriela Kirk, Syracuse University