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Assessing the reality of modern prison growth

By Douglas A. Berman

A helpful reader alerted me to this new Slate article by Professor John Pfaff, titled "Reform School: Five myths about prison growth dispelled." The piece builds off John's terrific and terrifically important article on "The Myths and Realities of Correctional Severity" (discussed here).  Here is how this Slate piece starts: The United States has a prison population like nowhere else.  With one out of every 100 adults behind bars, our incarceration rate is the highest in the entire world. Our inmates ? 1.5 million in prison, with another 800,000 in jail ? comprise one-third of the world's total.  This is a surprisingly recent development. A fter barely budging for 50 years, our incarceration rate increased sevenfold (to 738 per 100,000 people) between 1978 and 2008...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on February 20, 2009 (boomark / email).