Does Prison Work?

by Charles Murray

Crime is low when crime doesn't pay, is the motto of this provocative essay by Charles Murray. He challenges the prevailing view amongst the criminal justice establishment that locking up criminals solves nothing. Like other volumes in this series, 'Does Prison Work?' features a number of critical responses to Murray's thesis, in order to give students a range of views on the issue.

54 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 1997

About the author

Charles Alan Murray is an American libertarian conservative political scientist, author, and columnist. His book Losing Ground: American Social Policy 1950–1980 (1984), which discussed the American welfare system, was widely read and discussed, and influenced subsequent government policy. He became well-known for his controversial book The Bell Curve (1994), written with Richard Herrnstein, in which he argues that intelligence is a better predictor than parental socio-economic status or education level of many individual outcomes including income, job performance, pregnancy out of wedlock, and crime, and that social welfare programs and education efforts to improve social outcomes for the disadvantaged are largely wasted.

Reviews

[Gerry · Rating 2 out of 5]

Flavour of the then month Murray applies the American experience with law and order where petty crime and major crimes are all part of a money nexus. I am not one who thinks that prisons should provide leisure facilities but neither should they provide cheap Labour for projects outside. I cannot for the life of me understand why so many people end up in jail for minor drug offences. Actually I can because it all has to do with money. Screwing the general population for increased profits forces people to do extreme things and then are treated brutally. The American experience shows that an equitable system leads to a better society.