On Behalf of a Moratorium on Prison Construction

This paper presents a re-evaluation of the author's position on the issue of a prison construction moratorium. It discusses the explosion of prison populations in recent years, the inevitable deterioration of facilities resulting from severe overcrowding of outmoded facilities, and the emergence of a new "hard line" in correctional philosophy espoused by many writers today. A systematic re-thinking of the construction issue involved the collection and analysis of much data, all of the sort available to most correctional decision-makers. Analysis of the data revealed a number of surprising facts concerning the use of incarceration as a vehicle for controlling crime.