“The Science of Second Chances” Book excerpt

“There is a strong consensus that long prison sentences have little public safety benefit, for a couple of reasons. One is that the incapacitation effect falls dramatically as most people grow up and age out of crime. The second is that, as I discussed earlier, most people who might commit a crime are not thinking far ahead, so the threat of a long sentence has no more deterrent effect than the threat of a short sentence. As a result, adding many years to a prison sentence has little public safety benefit in most cases. And incarceration is really expensive so if we’re not getting any benefit from that spending, it's a huge waste of tax dollars that could be better spent in other ways.” (page 84) - “The Science of Second Chances”, by JENNIFER DOLEAC