The Growth of Incarceration in the U.S. : Consequences and Communities

Dr. Todd Clear, Provost Rutgers University-Newark, presenting his recent research “Predicting Crime Through Incarceration: The Impact of Rates of Prison Cycling on Rates of Crime in Communities”. This groundbreaking work, co-authored by Natasha Frost, Geert Dhondt, Michael Carr, and Anthony Braga explores the hypothesis that the effects of mass incarceration work to increase, rather than decrease, neighborhood crime rates. Additional speakers will be added as they are confirmed.


Todd Clear is Provost Rutgers University-Newark; previously, he was Dean of the School of Criminal Justice. In 1978, he received a Ph.D. in Criminal Justice from The University at Albany. Clear has also held professorships at Ball State University, Florida State University (where he was also Associate Dean of the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice) and John Jay College of Criminal Justice (where he held the rank of Distinguished Professor). He has authored 13 books and over 100 articles and book chapters. His most recent book is The Punishment Imperative, by NYU Press. Clear has also written on community justice, correctional classification, prediction methods in correctional programming, community-based correctional methods, intermediate sanctions, and sentencing policy. He is currently involved in studies of the criminological implications of “place,” and the economics of justice reinvestment.