Making the Punishment Fit the Crime

In its current crisis the American system of criminal justice has no friends. Overcrowded, unprincipled, and ill-coordinated, the institutions in our society that determine whether and to what extent a criminal defendant should be punished are detested in equal measure by prison wardens and prisoners, cab drivers and college professors. What is more surprising (and perhaps more dangerous), a consensus seems to be emerging on the shape of desirable reform-reducing discretion and the widespread disparity that is its shadow, abolishing parole decisions based on whether a prisoner can convince a parole board that he has been reformed, and creating a system in in which punishment depends much more importantly than at present on the seriousness of the particular offense. A number of books and committee