Mass incarceration nation : how the United States became addicted to prisons and jails and how it can recover - Jeffrey Bellin
"A former prosecutor turned law professor explains the rise of Mass Incarceration and the path to reform. The book offers an in-the-trenches perspective that solves the riddle of how thousands of local police, prosecutors, and judges, acting independently, produced the world's highest incarceration rates, while solving a shockingly low percentage of even serious crimes"--;The United States imprisons a higher proportion of its population than any other nation. Mass Incarceration Nation offers a novel, in-the-trenches perspective to explain the factors--historical, political, and institutional--that led to the current system of mass imprisonment. The book examines the causes and impacts of mass incarceration on both the political and criminal justice systems. With accessible language and straightforward statistical analysis, former prosecutor turned law professor Jeffrey Bellin provides a formula for reform to return to the low incarceration rates that characterized the United States prior to the 1970s.