Wisconsin sentencing in the tough-on-crime era : how judges retained power and why mass incarceration happened anyway / Michael O'Hear.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

O'Hear, Michael, 1968- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Imprisonment--Wisconsin--History.

Imprisonment.

Sentences (Criminal procedure)--Wisconsin--History.

Sentences (Criminal procedure).

Imprisonment--Political aspects--Wisconsin.

Sentences (Criminal procedure)--Political aspects--Wisconsin.

History.

Wisconsin.

Physical Description:

xv, 266 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Madison, Wisconsin : The University of Wisconsin Press, [2017]

Summary:

The dramatic increase in U.S. prison populations since the 1970s is often blamed on the mandatory sentencing required by "three strikes" laws and other punitive crime bills. Michael O'Hear shows that the blame is actually not so easily assigned. His meticulous analysis of incarceration in Wisconsin-a state where judges have considerable discretion in sentencing-explores the reasons why the prison population has ballooned nearly tenfold over the past forty years. O'Hear tracks the effects of sentencing laws and politics in Wisconsin from the eve of the imprisonment boom in 1970 up to the 2010s. Drawing on archival research, original public-opinion polling, and interviews with dozens of key policymakers, he reveals important dimensions that have been missed by others. He draws out lessons from the Wisconsin experience for the United States as a whole, where mass incarceration has cost taxpayers billions of dollars and caused untold misery to millions of inmates and their families. Book jacket.

Contents:

1 Setting the Stage, Meeting the Players 12

2 The Seventies Synthesis 45

3 The Equivocal Assault on Discretion, 1980-1995 66

4 The Quest for Improved Community Corrections, 1980-1997 88

5 The Demise of Parole, 1994-2002 106

6 Managerialism's Modest Comeback, the Early 2000s 128

7 Wisconsin's War on Drugs 163

8 Lessons 196.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780299310202

0299310205

OCLC:

946579933