Downsizing Prisons: How to Reduce Crime and End Mass Incarceration

After overseeing New York City's jail system, the largest in the country, Michael Jacobson knows first-hand the inner workings of the corrections system. In Downsizing Prisons, he convincingly argues that mass incarceration will not, as many have claimed, reduce crime nor create more public safety. Simply put, throwing away the key is not the answer.

Instead, Jacobson argues that our prison system needs a massive overhaul. Moreover, given the dire budget shortfalls facing most states, there really is no choice: we no longer have the revenue to continue prison expansion while simultaneously supporting education, health care, and lower taxes.

Downsizing Prisons examines specific ways that states have begun to transform their prison systems, in particular he focuses on the reforms underway in New York, Louisiana, Connecticut, and California. Jacobson offers practical policy solutions and strategies, such as: changing how parole and probation agencies operate, significantly reducing punitive sentencing and "technical" parole violations, and supporting drug-treatment programs for low-level drug offenders. These policy changes can actually increase public safety as well as save money.

As our prison populations swell to record levels, it is clear that the time to reform our prison system has come. Downsizing Prisons offers a clear and persuasive plan of action.

Over two million people are incarcerated in America's prisons and jails, eight times as many since 1975. Mandatory minimum sentencing, parole agencies intent on sending people back to prison, three-strike laws, for-profit prisons, and other changes in the legal system have contributed to this spectacular rise of the general prison population.

After overseeing the largest city jail system in the country, Michael Jacobson knows first-hand the inner workings of the corrections system. In Downsizing Prisons, he convincingly argues that mass incarceration will not, as many have claimed, reduce crime nor create more public safety. Simply put, throwing away the key is not the answer.

Library Journal

The United States locks up more of its population than any other country in the world. There are over two million people incarcerated in U.S. prisons and jails-eight times the rate in 1975. This increase can be greatly attributed to sentences for nonviolent drug and property offenses, which skyrocketed during the 1990s. Jacobson (criminology, John Jay Coll.) argues for changes in parole and probation agency operations, reductions in punitive sentencing, and the creation of drug treatment programs in lieu of prison sentences for low-level drug offenders. The premise here is to show how "the tremendous growth of incarceration over the past few decades relates directly to this country's present difficulties in adequately funding its education and healthcare systems." Jacobson does an adequate job defending his belief that incarceration is not the only sentencing alternative. Recommended for specialized collections in criminal justice.-Tim Delaney, SUNY at Oswego Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Michael Jacobson has over twenty years of government service. He was formerly the commissioner of the New York City Departments of Correction and Probation and a deputy budget director for the City of New York, serving in the Koch, Dinkins, and Giuliani administrations. He is currently the Executive Director of the Vera Institute of Justice.