Decarcerating America

even the most active offenders age out of crime around the age of thirty-five

the sentences for violent crime reflect our inflated punishment scale for all crime, not just violent crime.

In other words, keeping them longer has very little to do with public safety, and more to do with our need to express our outrage at their conduct by making them stay longer than, say, drug dealers or burglars. Because we have so enhanced what we do to burglars and drug dealers, we cannot do something reasonable to those facing sentences for violence. In other words, the sentences for violent crime reflect our inflated punishment scale for all crime, not just violent