Jason Rinaldo Bryant
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RONALD REAGAN AND THE FOUNDATION OF MASS INCARCERATION IN CALIFORNIA A Thesis Presented to the Faculty of California State University Dominguez Hills In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Arts in Humanities By Jonathan Paul Michael Barber Fall 2018 Copyright by JONATHAN PAUL MICHAEL BARBER 2018 All Rights Reserved To my family. Your unconditional love and continual support has inspired me to reach for an unprecedented future. Thank you for teaching me the values of hope, love, and compassion. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This paper is the product of countless individuals: To my parents, Michael Barber and Sherri Evans, and family, thank you for your unconditional love and unwavering confidence in my potential. To Dr. Matthew Luckett, Dr. Myrna C. Donahoe, and Dr. Lyle Smith, thank you for your mentorship. Your wisdom has been priceless. I am truly indebted for your guidance. To the Correctional Training Facility (CTF) administration, thank you for your commitment to education. You have created a fertile environment for real rehabilitation. To the CTF Education Department, specifically Principal Kevin Thompson, and Paula Germain, thank you for the invaluable support that ensured the completion of this thesis. A special thank to Sandra Wise and Roberta Schweers for empowering me, along with many other inmates, with the tools and lessons for future success. Your belief in an inmate’s redemption is indisputably inspiring. To Eric Dungan, and Bilji Varghese, thank you for your meticulous proofreading, honest feedback, and insightful suggestions. I am grateful for your friendship. To the numerous individuals I failed to mentioned, I undeniably appreciate the continual investment you place in me and the value you bring to my life. Thank you. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE COPYRIGHT PAGE .......................................................................................................... ii DEDICATION ................................................................................................................... iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................................... iv TABLE OF CONTENTS ................................................................................................... vi ABSTRACT ...................................................................................................................... vii CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION ...........................................................................................................1 Limitations of Thesis ...............................................................................................5 Definition of Terms..................................................................................................6 2. RONALD REAGAN’S GOVERNORSHIP ..................................................................11 Personal Staff .........................................................................................................12 Reagan’s Cabinet and Other Administrative Appointees ......................................15 Legislative and Judicial Branches ..........................................................................25 Summary ................................................................................................................31 3. THE ROOTS OF THE MASS INCARCERATION PHENOMENON ........................35 Four Analytical Frameworks .................................................................................36 Summary ................................................................................................................48 v CHAPTER PAGE 4. REAGAN ’S CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE MASS INCARCERATION PHENOMENON ...........................................................................................................51 The Central Figure .................................................................................................51 Colorblindness, Dog Whistle Politics, and the Southern Strategy ........................63 California’s Surpluses ............................................................................................70 Summary ................................................................................................................78 5. CONCLUSION ..............................................................................................................79 Thesis’s Findings ...................................................................................................79 Recommendation for Future Research ...................................................................85 WORKS CITED ................................................................................................................88 vi ABSTRACT Conventional scholarship does not assign any responsibility for the creation of the prison-industry complex to Ronald Reagan. This thesis entails a critical examination of Reagan’s governorship to identify his contributions to the mass incarceration phenomenon in California. It examines the structure of Reagan’s executive branch and its working relationships with other parts of California’s governmental bureaucracy. It also examines four different analytical frameworks on the development of the mass incarceration phenomenon; such an examination entails a review of the cultural dynamics of the 1960s and 1970s, the conservative movement’s usage of the southern strategy and dog whistle politics, the rise of the “law and order” and “tough on crime” movements, and the penal shift from rehabilitation to punishment. Finally, it furthers argues that Reagan’s rhetoric and actions in office, regardless of the theoretical lens, set the stage for the mass incarceration phenomenon in California. 1 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION America’s politicization of crime in the late-twentieth century has led to the creation of a massive prison-industry complex1 in the United States. Since its inception, American politicians adopted a stringent stance against crime; consequently, a torrent of legislation funneled billions of dollars into law enforcement agencies’ coffers and increased criminal penalties. These actions vastly augmented the nation’s prison populations, thereby placing enormous fiscal strain on their families and other American taxpayers. Furthermore, the continual investment in pro-mass carceral policies has jeopardized the achievability of the American Dream.2 These “tough on crime” policies adversely and overwhelmingly affected minorities, especially African Americans and Latinos. These intended or unintended consequences have plagued California since the 1960s. The roots of the “tough on crime” movement lie in the wave of multiple cultural revolutions of the 1960s. The rising prominence of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and the People’s Republic of China created a visceral fear of communism. The Civil Rights Movement revealed a hypocritical fracture in America’s cherished ideals of equality and liberty; subsequently, the Latino, Native American, and Women movements joined the cacophonic calls for social justice. Towards the end of the 1960s, a 1 The term “prison-industry complex” will be used interchangeably with the term “mass incarceration phenomenon” throughout this thesis. 2 The American Dream is the achievement of socioeconomic success through the process of upward social mobility (Harty 17). 2 counterculture movement tested the country’s morals and social norms. The Vietnam War pitted a substantial antiwar sentiment against revered American patriotism. In addition, underlying this monumental social upheaval was a major economic downturn. All of these occurrences traumatized the American psyche and damaged the populace’s optimism of a better America. As America’s dominant populace, White Anglo-Saxon Protestants (WASP)3 were fervently apprehensive and exceedingly resistant to the period’s cultural conflicts, which has come to be commonly known as “the white backlash” (Woodward 275). During the 1964 presidential election, Barry Goldwater exposed the allure of white resistance to the Civil Rights Movement. In the American South, George Wallace rallied from electoral defeat by preaching against the “illegal usurpation of the Central Government.”4 Richard Nixon captured the White House in 1968 by appealing to the “Silent Majority” with a modified version of Wallace’s implicitly biased rhetoric. Believing that “California was ripe for a change” (Cannon 9), Ronald Reagan, the charmingly polished personification of these three politicians, stormed into the Governor’s Mansion. Across the nation politicians embraced the newly discovered political eureka, the southern strategy. By exploiting the fears of white America, politicians attained and secured power under the banner of “law and order” and “tough on crime.” Since white America constituted over sixty-percent of the demography, politicians specifically 3 Generalizations about America are based on the culture of White Anglo-Saxon Protestants (WASP). Throughout this thesis “WASP,” “white America,” and “America/American” will be used interchangeably. 4 In June 1963, Alabama Governor George Wallace protested the federal government’s order to desegregate the University of Alabama. Eventually, US Deputy Attorney General Nicholas Katzenbach was sent down to Alabama to confront Wallace. In a staged protest, Wallace emphatically declared that desegregation was “an illegal usurpation of the Central Government” (qtd. in Lopez 15). 3 pandered to its needs while developing an