The United States has the highest incarceration rate in the world, a dubious distinction with grave social consequences. Most of the more than 1 million Americans behind bars - disproportionately low-income people of color - will return to their communities after serving long sentences with few resources and little support. Recidivism rates remain stubbornly high. The criminal justice system, then, fails to produce public safety even as core values such as equality, fairness, and redemption have fallen by the wayside.
The new book Excessive Punishment: How the Justice System Creates Mass Incarceration, edited by the Brennan Center’s Lauren-Brooke Eisen, features essays from scholars, practitioners, activists, and incarcerated writers, among others. The contributors explore the social costs of excessive punishment, how the roots of mass incarceration trace back to the country’s legacy of slavery, and reforms that would prioritize human dignity and restoration over retribution.