Do Prisons Make Us Safer?

by Raphael, Steven; Stoll, Michael A.

• ISBN13: 9780871548603
• ISBN10: 0871548607
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2009-02-28
• Publisher: Russell Sage Foundation
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Summary

Do Prisons Make Us Safer? asks whether it makes sense to maintain such a large and costly prison system. The contributors expand the scope of previous analyses to Include a number of underexplored dimensions, such as the fiscal impact on states, effects on children, and employment prospects for former inmates.
The United States currently imprisons a greater proportion of its citizens than any other nation in the world. Until now, however, we have lacked systematic and comprehensive data on how this prison boom has affected families, communities, and our nation as a whole. Do Prisons Make Us Safer? provides a highly nuanced and deeply engaging account of one of the most dramatic policy developments in recent U.S. history.

Table of Contents

About the Authors	p. vii
Acknowledgments	p. ix
Introduction	p. 1
Prison Boom Context
Why Are So Many Americans in Prison?	p. 27
The Origins of Mass Incarceration in New York State: The Rockefeller Drug Laws and the Local War on Drugs	p. 73
The Benefits and Costs of the Prison Boom
The Impact of Prison on Crime	p. 119
The People Prisons Make: Effects of Incarceration on Criminal Psychology	p. 151
Ever-Increasing Levels of Parental Incarceration and the Consequences for Children	p. 177
Footing the Bill: Causes and Budgetary Consequences of State Spending on Corrections	p. 207
Collateral Costs: Effects of Incarceration on Employment and Earnings Among Young Workers	p. 239
Are we at a Socially Optimal Level of Imprisonment?
Assessing the Relative Benefits of Incarceration: Overall Changes and the Benefits on the Margin	p. 269
Index	p. 343
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