Unwinding Mass Incarceration

In this article in Issues in Science and Technology, Stefan F. LoBuglio and Anne Morrison Piehl explore the challenges that local jurisdictions face in reducing their reliance on incarceration. Informed by research and experience working in corrections, the authors argue that unwinding mass incarceration requires more than stopping current practices or reversing course by mass commutations and early release programsit requires a new infrastructure of coordinated community-based facilities and services.

"Those most heavily involved in the criminal justice system will not succeed without the assistance of programs that provide services, discipline, and structure to guide their reintegration into society prior to and after their release," the authors state.

Read the article "Unwinding Mass Incarceration."

Stefan F. LoBuglio is director of Corrections and Reentry at The Council of State Governments Justice Center. Anne Morrison Piehl is a professor in the Department of Economics and director of the Program in Criminal Justice at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey. Issues in Science and Technology is the quarterly policy journal of the National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, Institute of Medicine, the University of Texas at Dallas, and Arizona State University.