For years, the U.S. criminal justice system has been accused of incarcerating too many Americans for too long. These claims have inspired newly enacted reforms that systematically reduce the costs of crime commission and raise the costs of law enforcement. Even as many of the nation's cities face resurgent crime, reformers have continued to push for further rollbacks in policing and incarceration. When it comes to crime and punishment, is the U.S. too punitive?

On October 17 MI had a virtual discussion of this question, moderated by MI's Nick Ohnell Fellow, Rafael Mangual, and featuring professors Barry Latzer and John Paul Wright.

Latzer is professor emeritus at the City University of New York's John Jay College and author of The Myth of Overpunishment: A Defense of the American Justice System and a Proposal to Reduce Incarceration While Protecting the Public. Wright is a professor at the University of Cincinnati and coauthor of Conservative Criminology: A Call to Restore Balance to the Social Sciences.