Thread by @MaryMoriarty

“…it’s critical not to respond with the kinds of policies that gave us mass incarceration and are helping to perpetuate it — in particular, the aggressive use of decades-long, mandatory prison sentences for “violent” crimes.” t.co/kTJ2R4t9Hf

“There are three things wrong with these “brute force” responses to violent crime.  The first is that they impose massive harm for negligible benefit. There’s no evidence that draconian sentences have done much to reduce violence in the United States.”

“Decades of research have failed to show any beneficial effect of our long prison sentences on public safety. What is certain is that they destroy lives, tear apart families, hollow out communities, and wreck state budgets.”

“The second problem, which exacerbates the first, is that “violence” is a morally freighted term without clear boundaries. Calling a crime “violent” is a way of placing it beyond the pale, outside the proper sphere of mercy, redemption, or understanding.”

“Our laws increasingly assume that the roots of violence are in the hearts and minds of offenders, not in the situations in which they find themselves. We tend to neglect the powerful social drivers of violence: from poverty and racism to the wide availability of guns in the (US)

“Fortunately, there is growing evidence that gun homicides between non-intimates — the kind of killings that have risen sharply over the past year and a half — 👇🏻

👆🏻— can be reduced dramatically by violence reduction programs concentrated on the relatively small number of people, places, and social interactions responsible for most of the street violence in a given city.”

“None of this is easy. Simpler and emotionally cathartic responses, like longer prison sentences for people convicted of violent crimes, have an obvious allure.”

“But we have been down that road before. It leads nowhere good. Violence is a hard problem, and it cannot be ignored or simply wished away. But even the most pressing of crises can be made worse.”