Many issues that are primary drivers of mass incarceration cannot be remedied through government solutions alone. Issues such as broken families and mental health, both forever altered by over criminalization, cannot be simply be repaired through legislation. Civil Society has the unique capability to address certain social issues that government cannot, or to address them more effectively than government can. This section also addresses issues in which over-policing attempts to fix issues that should be handled through the community.
“Rachel Barkow contends criminal justice policy is driven primarily by ‘politicized gut instincts’—a combination of fearmongering appeals to voters’ worst impulses and an aversion to evidence of what actually works. “
Center for Court Innovation: New Thinking Podcast
May 29, 2019
Read More“A prison inmate can’t commit a crime on the outside, so the longer the sentence, the safer we are, right? That is a tenet of the law-and-order movement, which arose in reaction to violent protests in American cities in the 1960s and has dictated criminal-justice policy for 50 years. But as Rachel Elise Barkow, a widely respected legal scholar at New York University School of Law and an expert in the administration of criminal justice, explains in her important new book, “longer sentences can actually threaten public safety.”“
The American Scholar
April 18, 2019
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