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: Sentencing Law and Policy

"One nation, behind bars"

By Douglas A. Berman

The Detroit Free Press has this potent editorial with this same title as this post.  Here are excerpts:The U.S. prison population, the world's largest, has grown nearly eightfold over the past 35 years and now costs taxpayers at least $60 billion a year.  An eye-popping report released last week by the Pew Center on the States found that, for the first time, more than one in every 100 American adults is in jail or prison. And that figure doesn't count the hundreds of thousands of people who are on probation and parole. What is the goal here?  Is there a smarter way to get there?  What are we as a society getting in return for all this money?  What is this massive and growing penal system accomplishing?  Before the nation hits two in 100 behind bars, which seems inevitable, it's time for a national debate on corrections and criminal justice policies that will lead to a more rational, humane and cost-effective system...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on March 06, 2008 (boomark / email).