1 Mass Incarceration in the US Introduction The U.S. has the highest incarceration rate compared to other countries, a problem that disproportionately affects minority groups. Mass incarceration is a big problem in the U.S., affecting mainly people of color. The problem can be resolved using a wide range of measures, including community-based justice and community justice approach. Community-based justice can be broadly defined as all efforts or measures taken to prevent and manage crime and justice activities that openly include the society or public in their processes and goals, mainly centered on enhancing the quality of life a community lives. On the other hand, community justice refers to all public safety measures taken to transform high-crime, socially marginalized areas into safe neighborhoods to live, work, visit, raise families, and invest in (Rye et al., 2018). Community justice and community-based justice are efforts to deliver justice to the victim, offender, and the community at large from outside the criminal justice system, reducing mass incarceration. The community justice system operates on several principles that underpin its framework and application. One of the principles is community justice seeks to heal and right the wrongs in the community. On this ground, the community-based justice system tries to avoid any measure that would appear punitive in advancing justice (Rye et al., 2018). The second principle is that justice belongs to the community, hence the importance of aligning the justice system with the interests of the community. If the community deems it fit to pursue an alternative justice system to its benefit, it should be allowed. The essence of this principle is to prioritize community welfare in administering justice (Aseltine, 2018). The community's responsibilities are to victims, delinquents, and the general welfare of its members. The objective of this principle is a holistic approach to justice rather than a subjective one. Whereas the conventional justice system
8 the offender and the victim can agree to solve the issue out of court. Nevertheless, communitybased justice approaches work well for petty offenses where the victim and the offender agree to participate in a community justice approach to resolving their cases. Restorative justice and community prosecution also work well where the offender admits wrongdoing, hence limited in their application.
9 References Aseltine, E. (2018). The Perniciousness of Prisons: Documenting the Problems of Mass Incarceration. American Anthropologist, 120(3), 595–598. Clear, T.R. & Karp, D. (2019). The Community justice ideal. Taylor & Francis Group. Federal Bureau of Prisons (2022). Inmate race. https://www.bop.gov/about/statistics/statistics_inmate_race.jsp. Kitwana, B. (2002). The Hip Hop Generation: Young Blacks and the Crisis in African American Culture. Basic Civitas Books. Rye, B., Hovey, A., & Waye, L. (2018). Evaluation of a restorative justice-based, communitybased program for people who have offended sexually: participant impact. Contemporary Justice Review, 21(3), 276–298. Tate, G. (2019). The black urban community: From dusk till dawn. Springer. Tucker, T. (2012). The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander. African American Review, 45(3), 466–468. Wright, R.F. (2021). Community prosecution and building trust across a racial divide. The Oxford Handbook of Prosecutors and Prosecution, pp. 412–428. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190905422.013.2.