Prison Reform Essay

In this chapter, we first summarize the findings and state our conclusions from the review of the evidence presented in the preceding chapters.We next consider the implications of these findings for public policy.From 1962 to 1972, the annual number of homicides had climbed from 8,530 to 18,670.

In this chapter, we first summarize the findings and state our conclusions from the review of the evidence presented in the preceding chapters.

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This provided the context for a series of policy choices—across all branches and levels of government—that significantly increased sentence lengths, required prison time for minor offenses, and intensified punishment for drug crimes.

Consequences When evaluating criminal justice policies, researchers and policy makers may turn first to the effects on crime rates.

As with many rigorous assessments of large historical events, a high level of scientific certainty about the effects of increased incarceration rates is elusive.

The relationships between incarceration, crime, sentencing policy, social inequality, and the dozens of other variables that describe the growth of incarceration are complex, variable across time and place, and mutually determining.

In short, the period of rising crime accompanied a period of intense political conflict and a transformation of U. In Wilson’s analysis, the outmigration of whites and working class blacks left behind pockets of concentrated disadvantage.

These poor, racially segregated neighborhoods were characterized not just by high rates of crime but also by an array of other problems, including high rates of unemployment and widespread single parenthood.

CONCLUSION: The growth in incarceration rates in the United States over the past 40 years is historically unprecedented and internationally unique.

The growth of incarceration rates, beginning in 1972, followed a tumultuous period of social and political change (see Chapter 4).

Local elected officials—including state legislators who enacted sentencing policies and, in many places, judges and prosecutors who decided individual cases—were highly attuned to their constituents’ concerns about crime.

Under these conditions, punishment policy moved in a more punitive direction.