Elliot Currie

In the following viewpoint, Elliot Currie contends that the drastic increases in the imprisonment rate during the past twenty-five years have done little to reduce crime. Imprisonment has become the “default solution” for America’s social problems such as poverty and mental illness, Currie argues, and has taken the place of social programs that can help to reduce crime, such as child welfare and job training services. He also asserts that the slashing of federal spending from social programs for the poor mirrors budget increases for prisons, which entrap the lower classes in a continuing cycle of crime, poverty, and family instability. Currie, a criminologist, has written several books on crime and teaches in the Legal Studies Program at the University of California at Berkeley.

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