What Does It Mean to End Mass Incarceration, and How Would We Know If We Did?

Abstract

Katherine Beckett’s new book, Ending Mass Incarceration (EMI), is ambitious and wide-ranging. Beckett tackles one of the most urgent human rights problems of the last fifty years, namely the massive growth of incarceration in the United States, with devastating consequences for millions of people who cycle through jails and prisons, disadvantaged communities, and for the cause of racial justice. The first half of EMI is diagnostic, focusing on Beckett’s analysis of the causes of mass incarceration, whereas the second half is programmatic, defending a series of proposals for winding it down. Broadly speaking, Beckett’s diagnosis centers on increases in the rates at which felony arrests are converted into custodial sentences in rural and suburban counties, and on across-the-board increases in time served over the last generation. Programmatically, Beckett proposes three main reforms: reducing what she deems “excessive” sentencing, in particular by imposing a twentyyear cap on custodial sentences and broadening parole eligibility; expanding restorative justice programs, including for people convicted of violent crimes; and replacing criminal enforcement for low-level drug offenses with harm reduction programs, perhaps taking a lead from the LEAD 2.0 program in Seattle. There is much to admire about EMI. Beckett is a careful researcher, draws on awide range of quantitative and qualitative research, and has the unusual ability to speak to both specialist and lay audiences. The last, in particular, is a difficult task to Vincent Chiao, University of Richmond, School of Law & Jepson School of Leadership. Email: vchiao@richmond.edu Criminal Justice Ethics, 2023 Vol. 42, No. 1, 86–98, https://doi.org/10.1080/0731129X.2023.2170658