The Failed Experiment of Mass Incarceration

Join the Brennan Center for Justice as our panel of criminal justice experts propose a better response to crime than failed mass incarceration.

The United States has the highest incarceration rate in the world, a dubious distinction with grave social consequences. Most of the more than 1 million Americans in prison — disproportionately low-income people of color — will return to their communities after serving long sentences with few resources and little support. Recidivism rates remain stubbornly high. The criminal justice system, then, fails to produce public safety even as core values such as equality, fairness, and proportionality have fallen by the wayside.

The new book, Excessive Punishment: How the Justice System Creates Mass Incarceration, edited by the Brennan Center’s Lauren-Brooke Eisen, features essays from scholars, practitioners, activists, writers who experienced incarceration, and others. The contributors explore the social costs of excessive punishment and how to ensure public safety without perpetuating the harms of mass incarceration.

Join us virtually on Wednesday, April 17, at noon PT (3 p.m. ET) for a live event to hear from several of the book’s contributors. They will discuss why the U.S. criminal justice system is so punitive and what alternatives could rebalance it.

Speakers:

--Jeremy Travis, Senior Fellow, Columbia Justice Lab

--Khalil Cumberbatch, Senior Fellow, Council on Criminal Justice; Co-CEO, Edovo
Nkechi Taifa, President, The Taifa Group

Moderator: Lauren-Brooke Eisen, Senior Director, Brennan Center Justice Program