Reforming Punishment

In "Reforming Punishment: Psychological Limits to the Pains of Imprisonment", author Craig Haney argues that the United States justice and prison system suffers from fatal structural and legal flaws that cause pain to the imprisoned and ultimately increase crime. Today the U.S. imprisons more people than any other nation. Prisons cause prisoners to make adaptations so they can take the long-term exposure to pain and these adaptations cause personal and social problems, both while offenders are imprisoned and after the offenders are released. Haney presents evidence that problems in prisons - which include overcrowding, violence, and sexual assault - are the result of poor design, lack of funding, and an outdated understanding of individual punishment that does not acknowledge the context in which crimes are perpetrated. In addition, the author argues that the War Against Drugs, combined with a majority culture's tendency to attribute wrongdoing to minorities, has created racially biased sentencing that has resulted in a gross overrepresentation of minorities among the prison population.
This hard-hitting book challenges current prison practice and points to ways psychologists and policy makers can strive for a more humane justice system.