Incarceration

By Emilia J. Bellone

General Context

Incarceration means using the criminal justice system to put an individual in institutional confinement, like jail, prison or a detention center. According to Castle, in American society incarceration became the dominant way to punish criminal offenders about two hundred years ago, replacing brutal corporal punishment (e.g. flogging). This change was guided by humanistic motives. The aims and practices of incarceration have varied widely since then, with political arguments often determining flawed, inhumane policies.

Anyone can be incarcerated - adults and children, males and females, able or disabled folks, mentally well and mentally ill people. However, incarceration rates for people of color – many of whom are poor - and poor people, generally, is extremely out of balance with their numbers in the general population. “Blacks, particularly young black males, make up a disproportionate share of the U.S. prison population.” (Scommegna). Castle points to yet another trend: “During the early twenty-first century, the rate of women's incarceration grew at twice the rate of men's incarceration…”

The United States has the highest incarceration rate in the world, and Louisiana’s incarceration rate is the highest in the country. (Scommegna). There is much myth and misunderstanding about why this is so, but “Looking at the big picture of the 2 million people locked up in the United States on any given day, we can see that something needs to change.” (Sawyer and Wagner).

Connection to Novel

Jefferson, the unjustly convicted protagonist of Lesson, is a poor, young, black man in south central Louisiana who has little education. For most of the novel Jefferson is incarcerated, so his racially segregated jail is the site of a great deal of the novel’s action. Jefferson is typical of the young black males who are incarcerated more than any other group of Americans.