From mass incarceration to a culture of control

Abstract

The restriction of accused and convicted individuals’ liberty and freedom through incarceration, in the effort to protect public safety, has been at the foundation of United States penal practice for centuries. Changing patterns of crime, significant historical events, dominant political ideologies, technological advances, and perceived increasing threats to public safety have resulted in an ever-changing and ever-expanding criminal justice system in the United States. These circumstances have also resulted in the expanded control over the general public in the form of continuous monitoring, searches, and data gathering. No longer are only the accused and convicted closely monitored in the name of public safety. This chapter will describe how the United States has become a culture of control in which all citizens are subject to new and more far-reaching elements of prison-like surveillance, regulation, and control. Focus will be given to the ways technological advances have provided an infrastructure for a system of control that has significant intrusive and punitive capabilities while simultaneously seeking to protect public safety. The chapter closes with a discussion of the role of citizens in democratic societies in confronting the culture of control.