The author’s big point is that the usual explanations for the rise in imprisonment-the “standard story” as he calls it-are not only wrong, they are destructive of efforts to disincarcerate. As he well understands, this makes his argument for reducing imprisonment a very tough sell.Īfter all, if violent crime and other serious offenses are the primary reasons for incarceration then why should we reduce imprisonment? And if we still wish to disincarcerate, despite the compelling reasons for all the lockups, then how might this be achieved? Unfortunately, Pfaff’s answers to these questions are the least persuasive portions of his book. ![]() Pfaff, a professor of law at Fordham, doesn’t cherry-pick data to support some a priori theory, he grapples with the hard realities that the data present. ![]() Its great strength is that it is empirically grounded. ![]() Pfaff’s Locked In: The True Causes of Mass Incarceration and How to Achieve Real Reform is probably the best book on so-called mass incarceration to date.
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