Overcriminalization significantly undermines human flourishing and social well-being by harming the family, social networks, and social citizenship. Additionally, it prevents capable men and women from utilizing their creative capacities in the marketplace. This creates vast issues involving relations with family while incarcerated and reintegration into society after release. On the economic side, draconian cash bail systems undermine justice through basing someone's ability to attain pre-trial release upon their wealth, not their actual threat to society.
"Instead, she posits, the penal power exerts social control through what she describes as marking (identifying a defendant as a real or potential lawbreaker), procedural hassle (the ordeal of processing a case) and performance (an evaluation of the defendant’s subsequent behavior). How? By identifying recidivists on the basis of previous arrests alone, rather than convictions, and then subjecting them to more stringent oversight."
New York Times
July 26, 2018
Read More