The United States gets the world’s highest rate of incarceration, a form of punishment that ruins lives and makes a return to prison much more likely. As terrible as that truth is for folks and their own families, its interpersonal consequences?recycling offenders via an confused criminal-justice program, ever-mounting costs, unequal treatment before the law, and an evergrowing class of permanently criminalized citizens?are even more devastating. Using the authority of the prominent legal scholar as well as the about Prisoners of Politics: Breaking the Cycle of Mass Incarceration useful insights gained through on-the-ground focus on criminal-justice reform, Rachel Barkow explains how dangerous it really is to foundation criminal-justice policy within the whims of the electorate, which puts judges, sheriffs, and politicians in workplace. Instead, she argues for an institutional change toward data and expertise, following a model used to create meals- and workplace-safety rules. Barkow’s prescriptions are rooted in a thorough and refreshingly ideology-free cost-benefit evaluation of how exactly to cut mass incarceration while keeping public safety. She points to specific policies that are deeply difficult on moral grounds and also have failed to end the cycle of recidivism. Her concrete proposals draw on the best empirical info available to prevent criminal offense and enhance the reentry of former prisoners into culture.