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The Costly U.S. Prison System
- Too Costly in Dollars, National Prestige and Lives
- Narrated by: Phil Blechman
- Length: 3 hrs and 33 mins
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Publisher's Summary
The prison system in the US is in crisis. We have far too many prisoners and spend far too much on housing them and building more prisons. We have far too harsh penalties for less serious nonviolent crimes, so we are unnecessarily incarcerating people who could be productive citizens, and destroying families in the process.
In The Costly U.S. Prison System: Too Costly in Dollars, National Prestige and Lives, author Paul Brakke provides a careful, close-up look from a conservative perspective of what’s wrong with the prison system and how to fix it. The key topics covered include these:
- A recent history of incarceration in the US
- Facts about our prisons and correctional system
- How other countries deal with prisons and recidivism
- The tendency of a convicted criminal to reoffend
- How one US state and one US city have dealt with prisons and recidivism
- Ways to reduce recidivism
- Ways to reduce incarceration and cut costs
This important audiobook summarizes much of what has been written on the subject by academics who use inscrutable terminology and have failed to offer practical solutions. It provides many new suggestions for reducing our bloated prison system and its excessive costs.
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What listeners say about The Costly U.S. Prison System
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
- A. Miller
- 07-20-21
Good Review of Alternatives
The tone of the book often sounds less objective than other public policy books may be, but much data is offered with a good review of alternative policies toward the end.
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Story
Policing the Black Man explores and critiques the many ways the criminal justice system impacts the lives of African American boys and men at every stage of the criminal process, from arrest through sentencing. Essays range from an explication of the historical roots of racism in the criminal justice system to an examination of modern-day police killings of unarmed black men.
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A Book Every Young White Male Should Read
- By danielwead on 08-04-17
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Bleeding Out
- The Devastating Consequences of Urban Violence - and a Bold New Plan for Peace in the Streets
- By: Thomas Abt
- Narrated by: Brad Raymond
- Length: 8 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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Urban violence is one of the most divisive and allegedly intractable issues of our time. But as Harvard scholar Thomas Abt shows in Bleeding Out, we actually possess all the tools necessary to stem violence in our cities. Coupling the latest social science with firsthand experience as a crime-fighter, Abt proposes a relentless focus on violence itself.
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Great read from a guy who committed his life to reducing violence
- By Dan Goodwin on 08-09-20
By: Thomas Abt
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American Psychosis
- How the Federal Government Destroyed the Mental Illness Treatment System
- By: E. Fuller Torrey
- Narrated by: Stephen McLaughlin
- Length: 9 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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E. Fuller Torrey's audiobook provides an inside perspective on the birth of the federal mental health program. On staff at the National Institute of Mental Health when the program was being developed and implemented, Torrey draws on his own first-hand account of the creation and launch of the program, extensive research, one-on-one interviews with people involved, and recently unearthed audiotapes of interviews with major figures involved in the legislation. As such, this book provides historical material previously unavailable to the public.
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Devastating analysis on US mental health policy!
- By Kevin on 07-13-14
By: E. Fuller Torrey
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Torn Apart
- How the Child Welfare System Destroys Black Families--and How Abolition Can Build a Safer World
- By: Dorothy Roberts
- Narrated by: Dorothy Roberts, Janina Edwards
- Length: 11 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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Many believe the child welfare system protects children from abuse. But as Torn Apart uncovers, this system is designed to punish Black families. Drawing on decades of research, legal scholar and sociologist Dorothy Roberts reveals that the child welfare system is better understood as a “family policing system” that collaborates with law enforcement and prisons to oppress Black communities. Child protection investigations ensnare a majority of Black children, putting their families under intense state surveillance and regulation.
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Important to Read. Unfinished Work.
- By Amazon Woman on 04-12-22
By: Dorothy Roberts
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The War on Cops
- How the New Attack on Law and Order Makes Everyone Less Safe
- By: Heather Mac Donald
- Narrated by: Pam Ward
- Length: 9 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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The War on Cops exposes the truth about officer use of force and explodes the conceit of "mass incarceration". A rigorous analysis of data shows that crime, not race, drives police actions and prison rates. The growth of proactive policing in the 1990s, along with lengthened sentences for violent crime, saved thousands of minority lives. In fact, Mac Donald argues, no government agency is more dedicated to the proposition that "black lives matter" than today's data-driven, accountable police department.
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Great book if you want the truth!
- By Paul Collins on 01-31-17
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Nobody
- Casualties of America's War on the Vulnerable, from Ferguson to Flint and Beyond
- By: Marc Lamont Hill, Todd Brewster - foreword
- Narrated by: Kevin Kenerly
- Length: 6 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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Protests in Ferguson, Missouri, and across the United States following the death of Michael Brown revealed something far deeper than a passionate display of age-old racial frustrations; they unveiled a public chasm that has been growing for years, as America has consistently and intentionally denied significant segments of its population access to full freedom and prosperity.
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Well Done
- By Zahrac29 on 05-15-17
By: Marc Lamont Hill, and others
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The Locust Effect
- Why the End of Poverty Requires the End of Violence
- By: Gary A. Haugen, Victor Boutros
- Narrated by: Arthur Morey
- Length: 12 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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While the world has made encouraging strides in the fight against global poverty, there is a hidden crisis silently undermining our best efforts to help the poor. It is a plague of everyday violence. Beneath the surface of the world’s poorest communities, common violence—like rape, forced labor, illegal detention, land theft, police abuse and other brutality—has become routine and relentless. And like a horde of locusts devouring everything in their path, the unchecked plague of violence ruins lives, blocks the road out of poverty, and undercuts development.
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Really worth listening to
- By Adam Shields on 12-15-15
By: Gary A. Haugen, and others
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Undocumented
- How Immigration Became Illegal
- By: Aviva Chomsky
- Narrated by: Frankie Corzo
- Length: 7 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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In this illuminating work, immigrant rights activist Aviva Chomsky shows how "illegality" and "undocumentedness" are concepts that were created to exclude and exploit. With a focus on US policy, she probes how people, especially Mexican and Central Americans, have been assigned this status - and to what ends.
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Greatly informative.
- By jared on 12-10-18
By: Aviva Chomsky
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Automating Inequality
- How High-Tech Tools Profile, Police, and Punish the Poor
- By: Virginia Eubanks
- Narrated by: Teri Schnaubelt
- Length: 7 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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Since the dawn of the digital age, decision-making in finance, politics, health, and human services has undergone revolutionary change. Today, automated systems control which neighborhoods get policed, which families attain needed resources, and who is investigated for fraud. While we all live under this new regime of data, the most invasive and punitive systems are aimed at the poor. In Automating Inequality, Virginia Eubanks systematically investigates the impacts of data mining, policy algorithms, and predictive risk models on poor and working-class people in America.
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Excellent research, sprinkled with person bias
- By Katie on 12-31-19
By: Virginia Eubanks