The Shadow Carceral State and Racial Inequality in Turnout

• In Event: Public Policy and Political Institutions

Abstract

Scholars have studied the carceral state extensively. However, little is known about the "shadow" carceral state, coercive institutions lacking even the limited safeguards of the carceral state. Pretrial incarceration is one such institution. It often lasts months and causes large resource losses. Yet it is imposed in rushed hearings, with wide discretion for bail judges. These circumstances facilitate quick, heuristic judgments relying on racial stereotypes of marginalized populations. We merge court records from Miami-Dade with voter records to estimate the effect of this "shadow" institution on turnout. We find that quasi-randomly assigned harsher bail judges depress voting by African American and Hispanic defendants. Consistent with heuristic processing, these racial disparities result only from inexperienced judges. Unlike judge experience, judge race does not matter; minority judges are as likely to impose detention and reduce turnout. The "shadow" carceral state undermines democratic participation, exacerbating racial inequality.

Authors

• Ted Enamorado, Washington University in St. Louis

• Anne McDonough, Princeton University

• Tali Mendelberg, Princeton University