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The Ezra Klein Show · February 10, 2024 · 75m
Mass Incarceration and the Illusion of Safety
The Ezra Klein Show
Klein examines why America incarcerates more people than any country on earth — 2 million people, 5x the global average — and whether mass incarceration actually makes anyone safer.
This summary was generated from show notes and public descriptions, not from a full transcript review. Details may contain inaccuracies.
Highlights
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Mass incarceration was a policy choice, not an inevitable response to crime — and the data shows it doesn't reduce crime
Klein presents evidence that incarceration rates and crime rates are not correlated: crime fell dramatically from 1990-2020 in states that reduced incarceration AND in states that increased it.•
The true cost of incarceration includes everything that happens to the incarcerated person's family and community
Klein argues that the cost of incarceration isn't just the $35K/year per prisoner — it's the lost income for families, the trauma to children, the destabilization of communities, and the reduced future earnings of the formerly incarcerated.Was this useful?