Document Type
Article
Publication Title
Michigan Law Review
Publication Date
4-2018
ISSN
0026-2234
Page Number
835
Keywords
incarceration, prosecutorial power, criminal justice
Disciplines
Criminal Law | Law | Law Enforcement and Corrections
Abstract
Americans increasingly recognize that "mass incarceration"-unprecedented incarceration levels well beyond those necessary to protect society- is a problem. Even among experts, however, few can persuasively explain how the phenomenon arose or what can be done to make it go away. These are the questions John Pfaff grapples with in his highly anticipated book, Locked In: The True Causes of Mass Incarceration-And How to Achieve Real Reform. The book's provocative conclusion is that "[p]rosecutors have been and remain the engines driving mass incarceration" (p. 206). As a result, he criticizes reform efforts that focus on legislators and judges and instead advocates new rules designed to rein in prosecutorial discretion.
Even before appearing in Locked In, Pfaff's data-driven insights found a receptive audience through academic publications and prominent media outlets. David Brooks highlighted Pfaffs views in an opinion column, explaining that "[h]is research suggests that while it's true that lawmakers passed a lot of measures calling for long prison sentences, if you look at how much time inmates actually served, not much has changed over the past few decades." How did we get here? Brooks explains, "[I]t's the prosecutors." Jeffrey Toobin profiled Pfaff's empirical findings in an article that Ninth Circuit Judge Alex Kozinski later quoted for the proposition that "prosecutors-more than cops, judges, or legislators" are "the principal drivers of the increase in the prison population." The first-ever law review article by a sitting President cites Pfaff's research as demonstrating "the important role prosecutors have played in escalating the length of sentences and can play in easing them." Legal scholars routinely follow suit.
Recommended Citation
Jeffrey Bellin,
Reassessing Prosecutorial Power Through the Lens of Mass Incarceration, 116 Michigan Law Review. 835
(2018)
Available at: https://scholarship.law.vanderbilt.edu/faculty-publications/1651