"Is Mass Incarceration Here to Stay?"

The title of this post is the title of this recent essay authored by Lynn Adelman and now available via SSRN. Here is its abstract:

This article argues that the number of people imprisoned in the United States is so large and that policymakers’ concerns about being perceived as soft on crime are so significant that it is very possible that mass incarceration will be with us for a very long time.  The article discusses some of the reasons that have been put forward as to why the United States has imprisoned so many people in the last 50 years and the harms that mass incarceration has brought about.  The article also explores some of the proposals that scholars and others have offered to reduce the number of people imprisoned.  Ultimately, however, the article questions whether there is sufficient will to address the enormity of the problem.