This month David McKnight reviews Halfway Home: Race, Punishment, and the Afterlife of Mass Incarceration by Reuben Jonathan Miller.

While often justified as a way to deter violence inside facilities, solitary confinement is more often used to punish non-violent transgressions such as dress code violations, refusal to work, or lack of respect toward correctional officials. Despite the failure of the U.S. Supreme Court to find that solitary confinement per se violates the Eighth Amendment, increasing numbers of stakeholders, including correctional officers, have called for its abolition.

The brother of NACDL member JoEllyn Jones was murdered in 1998. Ryan Young was released from prison in 2013, and she ran into him at a restaurant. This was her chance. For years, she rehearsed everything she wanted to say, imagining that she would curse him and tell him that he had torn her family apart. At that moment, however, something inside her shifted. JoEllyn asked Ryan if they could work together – and the healing began.

This month Robert Sanger reviews Mass Incarceration Nation: How the United States Became Addicted to Prisons and Jails and How It Can Recover by Jeffrey Bellin.

This month Sonya Pfeiffer reviews Prisoner of Politics: Breaking the Cycle of Mass Incarceration by Rachel Elise Barkow.

To achieve a meaningful decarceration (i.e., reducing the number of people in correctional facilities), policymakers must reduce prison admissions and scale back sentence lengths – both for those entering prisons and those already there. The growing movement to take a “second look” at unjust and excessive prison terms is a necessary first step. As the country grapples with an uptick in certain crimes, ending mass incarceration requires accelerating recent reforms and making effective investments in public safety.

Norway stands out as an innovator in corrections reform. The Scandinavian country is increasingly being studied for its success not only in improving living and working conditions for both individuals in custody and staff, but also because of its significantly lower recidivism rates. In Norway, life in prison resembles life outside as closely as possible. People in custody often wear their own clothes, cook in communal kitchens, and live in spaces that look more like dorm rooms than prison cells. Could this work in the United States?

How Holding Space, Education, Empowerment, and Speaking Truth to Power Can Deconstruct a Racist System

The United States incarcerates the most people of any country in the history of the world – and it has chosen whom to incarcerate, starting with people of color first. Oregon defense attorney Justin Rosas writes that any effort at creating a just society is going to involve decarcerating our society, accepting the invitation to truly hear one another, and speaking truth to power about the racial injustice the system was designed to inflict on communities.

Some people believe that mass incarceration is not a bad thing. It is. Mass incarceration is a public health hazard, promotes racism, increases the wealth gap, strains the economy, and increases crime and violence. It is unjustly meted out according to wealth and privilege, and often is most harshly used against the most vulnerable. How can the United States overcome its addiction to incarceration?

The expected prosecutions as a result of the Dobbs decision are bearing down on a system already overwhelmed post-COVID. Because of the promise of arrests for those traveling interstate seeking services, defense attorneys may feel an impact even if they do not practice in an abortion-restrictive jurisdiction.

Progressive prosecutors want to reduce the jail and prison population, eliminate disparities, and make the system fairer. Angela J. Davis points to a clear benefit of the movement: Progressive prosecutors do much less harm than traditional law and order prosecutors. What does less harm mean? Shorter prison sentences and fewer people with convictions. 

Progressive prosecutors want to reduce the jail and prison population, eliminate disparities, and make the system fairer. Jonathan Rapping says there is a lack of discussion regarding the damage the progressive prosecutor movement causes. He adds that the movement ignores the role of defense counsel in achieving justice. Is the progressive prosecutor movement here to stay, and is that a good thing? 

We tell ourselves that we are protected from government abuse by a system of jury trials in which jurors decide guilt or innocence and judges determine sentences. What is the reality? We have abandoned the system of public jury trials established in the Constitution and Bill of Rights in favor of a shadow system of guilty pleas driven by the logic of prosecutorial power.

This month Susan Elizabeth Reese reviews American Prison: A Reporter’s Undercover Journey Into the Business of Punishment by Shane Bauer.

Although women are comprising an ever-larger part of the prison population, they are being housed in a correctional system that was primarily designed for men.