By Franklin Zimring. Full Text. This short Essay is a summary of my reply to the presentations at the Minnesota Law Review’s symposium in November of 2019 in Minneapolis, titled “Mass Incarceration as a Chronic Condition: Diagnosis, Prognosis, and Treatment.” I outline the four principal sections of my forthcoming book’s analysis and then discuss and…

By Richard S. Frase. Full Text. In his forthcoming book, The Insidious Momentum of Mass Incarceration, Franklin Zimring argues that sentencing guidelines commissions, of the kind that exist in Minnesota and several other states, could help states roll back the massive increases in prison populations that began in the mid-1970s. Professor Zimring proposes to achieve…

By Kevin Reitz. Full Text. Parole boards and other officials with prison-release discretion have enormous statutory power over the size of prison populations in their jurisdictions. In discussions of American mass incarceration and potential decarceration strategies for the future, however, these officials are rarely mentioned. Indeed, little is known about how they do their work…

By Jessica M. Eaglin. Full Text. Despite recent modest reductions in state prison populations, Franklin Zimring argues in his forthcoming book that mass incarceration remains persistent and intractable. As a path forward, Zimring urges states to adopt pragmatic, structural reforms that incentivize the reduction of prison populations through a “categorical imperative,” meaning, by identifying subcategories…

By Robert Weisberg. Full Text. This Article places Professor Zimring’s treatment of the boom in imprisonment that led to mass incarceration in the wider context of his decades-long contemplation of our ability to understated changes in crime and punishment. His earlier studies of the great crime decline that began in the 1990s provides a revealing,…

By John F. Pfaff. Full Text. In his forthcoming book, The Insidious Momentum of Mass Incarceration, Franklin Zimring argues that the most effective way to end mass incarceration is to target the policy failures that drive it. He focuses in particular on the “prosecutorial free lunch”: prosecutors are county-funded officials who can send as many…

By Alfred Blumstein. Full Text. In today’s highly polarized political environment, one of the few issues which garners widespread agreement is the desire to reduce prison populations. Thus, it is rather disconcerting to see the recent stability of the incarceration rate since 2000. This raises the concern that this could be a reflection of a…

By Rachel E. Barkow. Full text.