Who Pays More for Corrections? Incarceration and the Puzzle of Democratic Governors

• In Event: Justice and Injustice: Political Science Perspectives on Crime and Punishment Mini-Conference: The Electoral Connection: Democratic Control of Criminal Justice Elites

Abstract

In the last three decades, the American carceral state has grown at an unprecedented rate. This
growth, fueled by a massive rise in incarceration and community corrections like parole and
probation, occurred precisely because politicians allocated the funds in order to construct prisons
and strengthen reentry programs. This paper analyzes state corrections spending and
incarceration rates and poses a question: how does gubernatorial partisanship influence the level
of corrections expenditures and incarceration in a particular state? I utilize a causal design and
find Democratic governors, not Republican ones, are associated with higher corrections spending
and higher incarceration rates, a result that remains robust across different categories of spending
and in different geographies. These findings suggest the expansion of the carceral state, at least
among the states, was a bipartisan effort.

Author

• Anna M Gunderson, Louisiana State University