Mass incarceration as a contemporary mechanism of racialization in the United States, United Kingdom, and Brazil

This paper discusses the broader consequences of prison expansion by focusing on the concentration of men of African descent in prisons in the United States, England, and Brazil.  While these countries have different histories of race and racial identification, their prison populations reflect similar patterns of racial disproportionality. A great deal of research has focused on the causes and consequences of disproportionate rates of incarceration for African American men, but few have addressed the racial implications of mass incarceration in an international context. Ultimately, this paper develops the idea that mass incarceration operates in various countries as a contemporary mechanism of racialization—a structure for economic marginalization and social stigma that reproduces racial caste.