14: Mass Incarceration Pt. 2

Question 1

what’s wrong with the standard story?

Answer 1

Pfaff thinks it is too simple to explain what is going on

Question 2

war on drugs driving prison growth

Answer 2

% of prisoners incarcerated for drug-related offences shot up dramatically in 1980-1990, but levelled out after and has gone down since

Question 3

trends in violent and property crimes are relatively unimportant

Answer 3

account for a majority of the increase in prison

fact that people’s perceptions that society was getting more violent, chaotic and that crime was going up was probably accurate

Question 4

longer sentences drive prison growth

Answer 4

time served has remained relatively stable for the last couple of decades

Question 5

criminal justice system as a cohesive entity with identifiable goals

Answer 5

highly unorganised, uncoordinated and unefficient

typically the fact that everything involved often has competing interests with poor communication

Question 6

moral hazard with county-level prosecutors

Answer 6

county prosecutors face a lot of pressure from the government not to prosecute too many misdemeanours since offenders are incarcerated in jails (funded by county governments)

prisons where felony offenders are sent are funded by the state government, so incentivises prosecutors to up-charge offenders that otherwise might be convicted of a felony

Question 7

politics of crime are uniquely dysfunctional with American politics

Answer 7

spending on corrections has kept pace with other government spending like welfare, education, transportation, etc.

Question 8

factors that Pfaff identifies for continuing incarceration

Answer 8

too many prosecutors
massive discretion prosecutors have
lack of transparency in what prosecutors do
electoral checks as the only meaningful check on power which have little influence
primary adversaries of prosecutors are substantially handicapped vis-à-vis prosecutors
no significant disincentive for prosecutors to choose to prosecute a particular case or to charge an individual with a higher-level charge than they might potentially otherwise

Question 9

why are prosecutors filing more charges, despite crime rates going down?

Answer 9

more prosecutors
sentencing laws and plea bargaining
people accused of crimes have longer criminal backgrounds
adversaries are underfunded with untenable caseloads
better police
political ambitions

Question 10

the black box

Answer 10

prosecutors have no real or very few reporting re