Unwinding Mass Incarceration

摘要

Consensus is now emerging that the United States should move away from its heavy reliance on mass incarceration, which has ramped up over the past 40 years, ending in more people being locked in jails and prisons than ever before. A variety of policies have been offered that may well begin to reduce the nation's excessive incarceration. But even as these steps reverse some of the most egregious causes of the prison buildup, there is no insurance that this will unwind the overburden of incarceration for the generation of those already extensively involved with the criminal justice system. This is the focus of our concern. In particular, we have been interested in identifying the challenges facing local jurisdictions (states and counties) that take up the charge to reduce their reliance on incarceration. Our views are informed by research and by experience in corrections in multiple jurisdictions. From this, we argue that unwinding mass incarceration will neither be cheap nor easy, and to be done responsibly will require a new infrastructure of coordinated community-based facilities and services that can meet evidence-based incarceration needs while also ensuring public safety.