Solutions: American Leaders Speak Out on Criminal Justice

"To truly reduce mass incarceration, we need a national conversation, led by national voices, offering national solutions. In this book, the Brennan Center asked the country’s leading public figures and criminal justice experts to offer practical solutions. They responded by writing essays putting forth a variety of proposals to tackle the problem of overincarceration from differing perspectives ... They share a commitment to continued progress in the fight against crime - and continued progress toward a more just society. The 22 solutions offered here will not fix the problem on their own. It is our hope that lawmakers and stakeholders implement these ideas to produce a system that both reduces crime and reduces mass incarceration" (p. 2). These solutions are presented by Democrats, Independents, and Republicans some of them being saving jail for the most dangerous, implementing a real mental health system, graduated reentry, abolishing the death penalty while investing in public safety, restoring fairness in sentencing, reducing the number of crimes, mercy--especially for the mentally ill, and getting offenders ready for work.