INTRODUCTION: REFRAMING THE ISSUE OF RACE AND IMPRISONMENT Radical changes in crime control and sentencing policies led to an unprecedented buildup of the United States prison population over the last thirty years. (1) By the end of 2002, the number of inmates in the nation's jails and prisons exceeded two million. (2) Today's imprisonment rate is five times as high as in 1972 and surpasses that of all other nations. (3) The sheer scale and acceleration of U.S. prison growth has no parallel in western societies. As David Garland put it, "This is an unprecedented event in the history of the USA and, more generally, in the history of liberal democracy." (4)
