“Incarceration Policy and the Effects on Black Men” - Professor Glenn C. Loury speaks at RWU Law

On October 1st, the Feinstein Institute welcomed Professor Glenn C. Loury, Stoltz Professor of the Social Sciences and Professor of Economics at Brown University, as part of its Public Interest Speakers Series. Professor Loury is a highly respected economist who has contributed to a variety of areas in applied micro-economic theory. He is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and a Carnegie Scholarship to support his work and has authored several books and over 200 essays and articles. In addition to this scholarly work, Professor Loury is also a prominent social critic and public intellectual.

Professor Loury spoke to a crowd of about 50 students, faculty and community leaders about current incarceration policy and in particular the effects on black men and minority communities more generally. He mixed analysis of research on arrest and incarceration rates with a passionate plea for changes in policy to address the root causes of social inequality and the disproportionate effect of current incarceration policies He focused on trend lines that have sharply diverged since the mid 1980s: the rate of violent crime has gone down while arrests and incarceration have skyrocketed, the result of a range of tough changes to the criminal justice system associated with the “war on drugs.” (like mandatory minimum sentences, “three strikes laws,” and the demise of parole as an alternative to jail.) To Professor Loury, this debate is about social justice, policy priorities and values.

Some of the information Professor Loury shared:

In support of his position, he showed that the incarceration ratio of black Americans to white Americans is 8 to 1.  The United States has 5% of the world’s population but houses 25% of the world’s inmates.  Property and drug offenders constitute 2/3 of the inmate population while those individuals are disproportionately drawn from the most disadvantaged parts of our society.  Below is a photo of Dr. Loury with students Angela Alexander (2L) and Greg Rosenfeld (1L).

Click here to see a video of the presentation.