Downsizing Prisons: How to Reduce Crime and End Mass Incarceration

by Michael Jacobson

Book Overview

A convincing argument that mass incarceration neither reduces crime nor ensures safety

Over two million people are incarcerated in America's prisons and jails, eight times as many since 1975. Mandatory minimum sentencing, parole agencies intent on sending people back to prison, three-strike laws, for-profit prisons, and other changes in the legal system have contributed to this spectacular rise of the general prison population.

After...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0814742912
• ISBN13: 9780814742914
• Release Date: September 2006
• Publisher: New York University Press
• Length: 292 Pages
• Weight: 0.95 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.0" x 8.9"

Customer Reviews

great timing..

Once I ordered the book i recieved it in a few days and all I requested was regular mail. I would def. order from here again.

A Prison Employee

I work at a prison and suggested this book to my boss, the Prison Commissioner. He has found it to be true with his 5 years of experience in our prison system and is citing it in presentations before policy makers.

policy argument against excessive incarceration

Jacobson was a budget director for New York City who then became the head of probation and later the head of corrections. He thus has considerable experience with the costs of incarceration and how those costs impact the rest of the government's budgets. In this book he reviews the tremendous rate of increase of incarceration over the last three decades and the costs attendant to this policy. The increased use of mandatory minimum sentences, three-strikes legislation, and the vastly increased use of technical parole violations are identified as the major contributors to these increases. He then reviews how ineffective this has been in reducing crime. Then he makes the case for reducing the rate of incarceration. His thesis is that for lower grade cases (property crimes; drug crimes; etc.), lengthy prison sentences are both ineffective and fiscally wasteful. He would divert significant resources from this incarceration to (a) more treatment in lieu of custody and (b) other social programs which are also fiscally strapped. The budget crunch faced by states in recent years he believes provide an opportunity for changes: states simply cannot afford their prisons. Even Louisiana and Mississippi have recently passed legislation which reduce some prison terms. The book seems to be generally aimed at polilcy-level people. It describes the sorts of legislation that would be necessary, delineates some of the general political forces which are at work and which must be met ('tough-on-crime' attitudes; the prison guards unions; private prison corporations mainly). The book makes a persuasive case in fiscal terms and even on effectiveness (though his claims that we know which programs work and which don't are supported by citations of work and are not entirely convincing). I was very glad to see a book like this become generally available and hope it gets a wide readership. This society clearly needs to deal with the issue, as we incarcerate people at a rate higher than any other nation in the world. Hopefullyl the book will help initiate and further the debate on the issue. But it is not a book for general readership. He assumes that if costs can be cut and there is little change in public safety, then there can be little reason to not adopt the suggestions, that only politics is in the way. He makes no moral case against excessive incarceration. This omission means that this is not the book to convince the public, though it certainly should be given due consideration by the general public and policy makers.