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: Sentencing Law and Policy

Thoughtful discussion of crime, punishment and restorative justice

By Douglas A. Berman

A helpful reader altered me to this terrific new piece, titled "America's Prisons: Is There Hope?", appearing in the June 11, 2009 issue of The New York Review of Books.  Though the piece in various ways keeps returning to restorative justice themes, it covers a broad array of ideas and has many terrific elements and passages. Here is just one of many sections that merits the spotlight: According to one estimate, 23 percent of the discrepancy in black/white incarceration rates could be eliminated if blacks stayed in school as long as whites, and that was in 1980, before the thirty-year surge in black incarceration got underway.  An even greater effect was seen with violent crime, such as murder and assault.  According to the authors of this study, a one percent increase in the graduation rate could save $1...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on May 27, 2009 (boomark / email).