Addicted to Incarceration: Corrections Policy and the Politics of Misinformation in the United States

In Addicted to Incarceration, author Travis C. Pratt uses an evidence-based approach to explore the consequences of what he terms America′s "addiction to incarceration." Highlighting the scope of the issue, the nature of the political discussions surrounding criminal justice policy in general and corrections policy in particular, and the complex social cost of incarceration, this book takes an incisive look at the approach to corrections in the United States.  The Second Edition demonstrates that the United States′ addiction to incarceration has been fueled by American citizens′ opinions about crime and punishment, the use of incarceration as a means of social control, and perhaps most important, by policies legitimized by faulty information. Analyzing crime policies as they relate to crime rates and society′s ability to both lower the crime rate and address the role of incarceration in preventing future crime, this book shows students how ineffective the rush to incarcerate has been in the past and offers recommendations and insights to navigate this significant problem going forward.

Table of Contents:
Preface to the Second Edition New to the Second Edition Acknowledgments PART I: SETTING THE STAGE 1. Introduction The Politics and Consequences of Incarceration Summary Discussion Questions Key Readings 2. The Politics of Punishment in the United States Problem Ownership, Punishment Philosophies, and Changes in Corrections Policy Over Time Political Capital and Getting Tough The Rise of Evidence-Based Correctional Policy Summary Discussion Questions Key Readings PART II: SOURCES AND DIMENSIONS OF MISINFORMATION 3. Misinformation About the Crime Problem Victimization and the Fear of Crime Nonserious Crime as Gateway Offending? Incapacitation and Errors in Prediction Summary Discussion Questions Notes Key Readings 4. Misinformation About Public Opinion Global Versus Specific Attitudes About Punishment Public Support for Alternative Punishment Philosophies Summary Discussion Questions Notes Key Readings 5. Misinformation About Prisons and Crime Control Prisons and Crime Control: The Empirical Evidence Rethinking Offender Decision Making Summary Discussion Questions Notes Key Readings PART III: CONSEQUENCES AND MOVING FORWARD 6. The Social Costs of Incarceration Consequences of Incarceration for Offenders Consequences of Incarceration for Families and Children Consequences of Incarceration for Communities Consequences of Incarceration for Social Institutions The Case of Immigration, Crime, and Punishment Summary Discussion Questions Notes Key Readings 7. Conclusions and Recommendations The Persistent Addiction Rethinking Crime Control Policy Rethinking Corrections Policy Reconnecting Evidence With Policy Parting Thoughts: Breaking the Addiction Discussion Questions Key Readings References About the Author Index

About the Author :
Travis C. Pratt received his degrees from Clark College, Washington State University (BA, Political Science; MA, Criminal Justice), and the University of Cincinnati (PhD, Criminal Justice). He has served on the faculty of the School of Criminal Justice at Rutgers University-Newark, was the Director of the Program in Criminal Justice at Washington State University, and a Professor the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice at Arizona State University. He is currently a Fellow with the University of Cincinnati Corrections Institute. His research and publications focus primarily on structural and integrated theories of crime and delinquency (including macro-level, multilevel, and individual-level approaches to the study of criminal/deviant behavior) and correctional policy (both institutional and community corrections). He has published over 100 articles that have appeared in the leading peer-reviewed journals in the field, including: Crime and Justice: A Review of Research; Criminology; Journal of Youth and Adolescence; Journal of Pediatrics; Journal of Quantitative Criminology; Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency; and, Justice Quarterly. He received the 2006 Ruth Shonle Cavan Outstanding Young Scholar Award from the American Society of Criminology for his research and scholarship.

Review :
"Few texts are willing to interrogate the phenomena of mass incarceration on such a personal scale." "This text is an excellent resource to any instructor that wants to engage the curiosity of their students on core correctional topics, while simultaneously not bogging them down with too much information. In particular, this text does a great job at providing the appropriate amount of information that will serve as a catalyst for engaging class discussions on key correctional topics that have and continue to face the United States. There is an appropriate balance of factual evidence with narrative." "The book develops an argument about society’s tendency to feed on mass incarceration." "It is a brief text, but provides good information for students and provides nice themes for debate. More books should be like this." "I strongly believe that this textbook represents an important and much needed critical discourse on the corrections system. This book is an intellectual and scholarly achievement for advancing the knowledge of both undergraduate and graduate students studying correctional theory, policy, and the legal processes reinforcing the corrections system. This is a user-friendly text that invites the reader to critically examine the controversial and often unmentioned aspects of correctional policy through an active review of the research and scholarly literature." "A great undergraduate criminal justice text that sheds light on the overuse of incarceration as a form of punishment in the United States, strongly supported by empirical evidence." "The text succinctly explains to readers how the United States has become the world’s leader in incarcerating its own people (particularly poor people and people of color) and the grave costs that doing this has and will continue to have on communities throughout this country. Far from being irreversible, the text details what needs to change and sketches out what progressive policymakers, scholars, and concerned people can do about it."