As previously noted on the blog, I wrote a review of Locked In by John Pfaff for the Federalist Society Review. I have recently been reminded of a previous review of the same book at Law & Liberty by Barry Latzer, whose invaluable work I have noted several times on this blog.
John F. Pfaff's Locked In: The True Causes of Mass Incarceration and How to Achieve Real Reform is probably the best book on so-called mass incarceration to date. Its great strength is that it is empirically grounded. Pfaff, a professor of law at Fordham, doesn't cherry-pick data to support some a priori theory, he grapples with the hard realities that the data present. As he well understands, this makes his argument for reducing imprisonment a very tough sell.
After all, if violent crime and other serious offenses are the primary reasons for incarceration then why should we reduce imprisonment? And if we still wish to disincarcerate, despite the compelling reasons for all the lockups, then how might this be achieved? Unfortunately, Pfaff's answers to these questions are the least persuasive portions of his book.
That is consistent with my view of the book.
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