Columbia International Affairs Online: Policy Briefs

CIAO DATE: 07/2008

Do the Time, Lower the Crime

James Q. Wilson

April 2008

American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research

Abstract

In an article in the Los Angeles Times on March 30, 2008, James Q. Wilson dissected a new report that suggests the United States incarcerates too many people. Wilson acknowledges that there are problems with U.S. imprisonment policy, but he maintains that an argument about the cost of prisons needs to take into account their benefits.