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7 - Legislating More Punishment and Less Rehabilitation

from Part II - The Building Blocks of Mass Incarceration

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 November 2022

Jeffrey Bellin
Jeffrey Bellin
Affiliation:
William and Mary Law School, Virginia
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Summary

The previous chapter discussed the wave of political energy introduced into American politics by a desire to fight crime. The message resonated beyond the “street crimes” Senator Kennedy singled out in 1975, like rape and murder. Politicians also turned to the criminal justice architecture to solve society’s most vexing problems, like drug addiction, gun violence, child pornography, drunk driving, and intrafamily abuse. This approach required two components: new laws and increased enforcement. Legislators changed the laws, and they funded a hiring spree of police officers to catch people who broke those laws, prosecutors and judges to put them in jail, and correctional officers to keep them there.

Keywords

1994 Crime BillTruth in Sentencingindeterminate and determinate sentencingparoleMartinsonDWI
Type
Chapter
Information
Mass Incarceration Nation
How the United States Became Addicted to Prisons and Jails and How It Can Recover
 , pp. 48 - 66
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

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