THE EYE OF THE BEHOLDER. The recession has given rise to a new penological discourse, which I call “humonetarianism”—a set of justifications for non-punitive policies from a perspective of cost and financial prudence. The book examines the footprint of humonetarianism in a variety of correctional areas over the last few years: the transformation of death penalty discourse, away from human rights and racial discrimination concern and toward savings; the Obama administration’s retreat from severe drug policies, accompanied by state and local initiatives to legalize, relax enforcement, cut sentencing, and achieve a truce in the drug way; the way private prison companies and public correctional authorities both respond to a leaner market–by lobbying, negotiating, and diversifying their investment away from domestic inmates and toward undocumented immigrants; and the ways in which humonetarianism has produced a new perception of the offender—less a “ward” of the state and more of a “consumer” of its resources–which leads to special attention to the old and the infirm as well as “pay to stay” regimes that roll the costs of incarceration onto the inmates themselves.
Posted on: Tue, 05 Aug 2014 18:14:18 +0000
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