Summary
This manifesto reviews the development of American criminal justice policy, and argues that policymakers have lost their way in a forest of good intentions, political cynicism, and public anxieties, and that prevailing – but short-lived – sensibilities on “getting tough” on crime have overruled common sense. From capital punishment, to three-strikes-you’re-out, to the highest imprisonment rates in the Western world by a factor of five, the United States has created a punishment system that no one would knowingly have built from the ground up. It is often unjust, it is unduly severe, it is wasteful, and it does enormous damage to the lives of Black Americans.
Contents
1. Sense and sensibility in American penal culture – 2. Why so many Americans are in prison – 3. Cycles and sensibilities – 4. Moral panics and ‘windows of opportunity’ – 5. Crime trends and the effects of crime control policies – 6. Formerly unthinkable policies – 7. Unthought thoughts – 8. Better understanding, people, and policies.