Addressing the Problem of Mass Incarceration: Penal Parsimony and the Possibility of Broad-Based Social Justice Initiatives

How might social justice initiatives contribute to a reduction in crime, violent, and white-collar? The last chapter investigates this and one other issue—the social justice benefits of punishing less. Mass incarceration is a worldwide phenomenon, though it’s particularly pronounced in the United States. The chapter notes sensible, non-utopian proposals, based on the principle of penal parsimony, for reducing the rate of incarceration. It then turns to three long-term social justice initiatives that can reduce the rate of criminal offending. These are (in descending age-order): full employment programs for adults, summer employment programs for at-risk adolescents, and immersive investment in day care for children. The younger the person, research shows, the more he/she benefits from government initiatives. Social justice calls for such initiatives as a matter of fundamental fairness. In doing so, though, the literature suggests that rates of offending will decline as well.