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Racial disparities in criminal justice system contact are a pressing concern for both scholars and the public. For 25 years, the Russell Sage Foundation has been at the forefront of this issue and has supported research on law enforcement, the criminal justice system, and incarceration with an emphasis on examining racial and ethnic disparities. Since then, the literature on these topics has expanded and we now have a vast body of research on them. In this special issue of RSF, an interdisciplinary group of contributors review research from over the past two decades to advance our understanding of racial and ethnic bias in law enforcement, criminal justice processes, and incarceration.

Shawn Bushway and colleagues review literature on racial disparities in pretrial detention, sentencing, and outcomes of community corrections programs, such as probation, parole, halfway houses, and work-release programs. They find that systematic issues, rather than individual bias, are the main driver for these disparities and that reforms, such as eliminating pretrial detention for nonviolent offenders, who are not on probation or parole, can be effective tools for reducing racial disparities without creating significant harms to public safety. Alia Nahra and colleagues review literature on the difficulties the formerly incarcerated face when they transition from prison into their communities, a process referred to as reentry. They find that criminalization and punishment, such as criminal record discrimination in housing and employment and parole and probation supervision, stymie reintegration, while support from family and welfare programs help reintegration. They also found that formerly incarcerated Black men and women face greater obstacles when reentering their communities. Emily Ryo and colleges review literature on the criminalization of immigration. They find that while immigration law is considered federal civil law, immigration enforcement has come substantially intertwined with criminal law enforcement. They also find that criminalizing immigration results in the categorization of certain groups as dangerous and results in sustaining and promoting policies that target or have disproportionate impact on certain immigrant groups. Additionally, they find that the U.S. has outsourced immigration enforcement to other countries, such as Mexico, Guatemala, and El Salvador, therefore, the effects of criminalizing immigration are not limited to the U.S.

This volume of RSF provides a fascinating look back at the research conducted on racial disparities in the criminal justice system thus far and offers new avenues for future research.

From the stone quarries of Sing Sing that supplied marble for early New York City landmarks to twenty-first-century construction projects staffed by formerly incarcerated workers, Inside Jobs traces the relationship between prison work and the labor market over the past two hundred years. Sociologist Adam Reich demonstrates how prison labor has repeatedly been used to solve economic problems—disciplining workers, lowering labor costs, managing unemployment—revealing unexpected connections that challenge our assumptions about freedom, coercion, and labor itself.

Reich examines the history of work in prisons to understand how it has related to the free labor market. He finds that the organization of prison work, and debates over it, have changed dramatically over time. In the mid- to late nineteenth century, prisons helped shape the emerging factory system as the apprentice-based labor market gave way to industrial production. Labor unions opposed prison labor as immoral, and in the early to mid-twentieth century, the moral character of the workforce became central to economic life within the prison and without. Therapeutic professionals worked in prisons to rehabilitate the incarcerated and determine what motivated them to work. Following prison uprisings in the late twentieth century, prison work became a tool of population control. Yet, paradoxically, work programs were remodeled to mirror the free labor market, requiring applications and hiring processes.

Blending archival research, political economy, and sociological theory, Inside Jobs offers a powerful new framework for understanding mass incarceration and reentry today. Reich examines how the dynamics of mass incarceration have begun to shift. He explores how the “mark of a criminal record”—the stigma traditionally associated with felony convictions—has given way to a “market” for criminal records, as employers discover advantages in hiring disadvantaged, dependent, and disciplined workers recently released from prison. Looking toward the future, Reich focuses on promising efforts to transform this system.

Inside Jobs is an illuminating examination of prison work’s history, its relationship to work outside prison walls, and how the criminal justice system disempowers workers both behind bars and beyond.