Sunbelt Justice Arizona and the Transformation of American Punishment [Paperback]

In the late 20th century, the United States experienced an incarceration explosion. Over the course of twenty years, the imprisonment rate quadrupled, and today more than than 1.5 million people are held in state and federal prisons. Arizona's Department of Corrections came of age just as this shift toward prison warehousing began, and soon led the pack in using punitive incarceration in response to crime.Sunbelt Justicelooks at the development of Arizona's punishment politics, policies, and practices, and brings to light just how and why we have become a mass incarceration nation. Sunbelt Justiceis a path-breaking analysis of the origins and development of mass imprisonment in Arizona. Lynch unravels an important and timely puzzle: why did a state known for its fiscal conservatism and deep mistrust of big government build a vast and expensive penal system? This insightful book also explains why Arizona became a national trend-setter in delivering harsh punishment as the rehabilitative model receded in the United States. Mona Lynch's insightful analysis of Arizona's war on crime sheds new and important light on penal politics and trajectories.Sunbelt Justiceis a must-read for those seeking to understand how the United States became home to the largest prison system and prisoner population the world has ever known, as well as how local circumstances shaped the way this process unfolded in Arizona. Sunbelt Justiceis full of colorful characters who do not hesitate to express their devotion to discipline and to express their resentment of outsiders who meddle in their institutions.... It effectively shows that Arizona and the other new states of the American Southwest were always more dubious about rehabilitative approaches to imprisonment than the Northeast and Midwest. Mona Lynch is Associate Professor in the Criminology, Law & Society Department at the University of California, Irvine. In addition to authoring numerous articles, she has l““