What if doctors prescribed the same treatment to every patient with a particular symptom, without trying to diagnose its cause? Or if they offered powerful medications, without bothering to figure out if they worked?
That, Marc Levin argues, is how America’s criminal-justice system presently operates. “We’re still basing the sanction on the specific offense they’ve committed,” Levin said, without attempting to figure out its underlying causes. “We need to diagnose someone as soon as they’re arrested, and figure out what would reduce their criminogenic needs.”
That argument is part of a broader push by Levin, and like-minded reformers, to overhaul the criminal-justice system with evidence-based programs. Levin is the director of the Center for Effective Justice at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, a free-enterprise oriented think tank. He made the comments on Monday at a panel at the Aspen Ideas Festival, which is co-hosted by the Aspen Institute and The Atlantic.
[For more of this story, written by Yoni Appelbaum, go to http://www.theatlantic.com/pol...stice-reform/488984/]
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