Raphael's Article Summary

In analysing Steven Raphael’s article, titled How Do We Reduce Incarceration Rates While Maintaining Public Safety?, I was able to uncover some similarities and differences in related topics found in our course textbook-- Steven P. Lab and colleagues’ Criminal Justice The Essentials. Raphael, Public Policy Professor at the University of California, Berkeley, has an obvious concern for the policies enforced today that are thought to be responsible to the overcrowding of most prisons across the U.S.. Meanwhile, the textbook draws a close eye to the incarceration rates and increases overtime- all the while remaining objective and open loose interpretation. Both pieces of text add to the enlightenment of my knowledge dealing with the criminal justice system. The textbook is a key part in my learning of the basic “in’s and out’s”, per say, of the criminal justice system--

For instance, in the eyes of the reader, Raphael’s article could have been strengthened by various statistics. In form of quantity, the article had plenty of different examples-- but the piece could have been more effective if different statistics were used. The problem of harsh incarceration rates has been a discussion for probably a decade at the least, making room for various information more plausible. By using information from, perhaps, pretrial diversion results to show that time in prison is not always the best fit for nonviolent offenders. It would have been more powerful if, on page 587, Raphael gave results from the “20,000 additional individuals in noninstitutionalized society”. My question would regard the effect on crime rates after releasing 20,000 inmates due to policy reforms. I would want to see the direct effects on crime and prison expenditures after the bold act of releasing former inmates early. In the presence of positive results, society will get behind policy reforms and Professor Rafael, in this