Domestic Violence Policies Central to Mass Incarceration

Article here. Excerpt:

'Since 1980, the prevalence of incarceration in the U.S. has risen to an extraordinary level. U.S. mass incarceration is widely recognized to be a major public problem. While domestic violence policies have scarcely been discussed in that context, a harshly punitive regime ofdomestic violence emergency law developed in conjunction with mass incarceration. State actions under domestic violence emergency law now account for a majority of justice system actions addressing interpersonal violence. Domestic violence polices are central to the development of mass incarceration in the U.S. from about 1980.
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Beginning about 1976, U.S. states rapidly enacted laws specifying civil processes for issuing domestic violence restraining orders. Civil petitioning for a domestic violence restraining order has developed into filing a pre-printed form that is perfunctorily judged ex parte. Restraining orders have also become a common condition for bail and for a plea bargain following a criminal charge of domestic violence. ... About 1.2 million initial domestic violence restraining orders are issued per year. Violations of a restraining order can be nothing more than the otherwise ordinary act of making a non-harassing telephone call. Most states have made violating a restraining order a criminal offense. Restraining orders are highly effective instruments for criminalization and incarceration.'

Also see: Gender Protrusion in Imprisonment:

'Socially recognized, acutely felt imprisonment confines highly disproportionately men... Around the world, for every woman prisoner, there are about fifteen men prisoners.

... Sex ratios of persons in life-disposing punishment have varied from about two men per woman to more than thirty men per woman over merely the past four centuries among merely countries in Europe. Over the past two centuries, penal imprisonment has generally shifted toward greater and more uniformly disproportionate imprisonment of men. ...
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The extent to which prisoners are men is scarcely an issue in public deliberation. ... developments in public communication have contributed to highly disproportionate imprisonment of men. Most persons ... don’t believe and shouldn’t believe that men are essentially more evil or more deserving of punishment than are women. That understanding of human equality has little effect on punishment policy.'