Crime and high rates of incarceration impose tremendous costs on society, with lasting negative effects on individuals, families, and communities. These high costs highlight the need for both effective crime-prevention strategies and smart sentencing policies, in addition to strategies for reaching at-risk youths.
On May 1st, The Hamilton Project at Brookings hosted a forum and released three new papers focusing on crime and incarceration in the United States. Former U.S. Treasury Secretary Robert E. Rubin delivered opening remarks.
The first panel discussed a new proposal by Steven Raphael of UC Berkeley and Michael Stoll of UCLA for reducing incarceration rates in the United States through sentencing reform and changes to the financial incentives facing state and local governments. A second panel discussed a new proposal by Jens Ludwig and Anuj Shah, both of the University of Chicago, outlining a strategy for scaling out an educational program—the “Becoming a Man” (BAM) program —to help disadvantaged youths recognize high-stakes situations in which their automatic responses may lead to trouble.
The panels featured leading policymakers and practitioners, including Dean Esserman, New Haven Chief of Police; Elizabeth Glazer, Director of the Office of Criminal Justice for New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio; Cristine DeBerry, Chief of Staff for the District Attorney for the City and County of San Francisco; and Robert Listenbee, Administrator of the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention for the U.S. Department of Justice. Academic experts Daniel Nagin, Professor of Public Policy and Statistics at Carnegie Mellon University and co-editor of Criminology and Public Policy, and Laurence Steinberg, Professor of Psychology at Temple University and an internationally recognized expert on psychological development during adolescence, also joined the discussion.
Agenda
1:00 p.m. Welcome and Introductions
Robert E. Rubin
Co-Chair, Council on Foreign Relations; Former U.S. Treasury Secretary
1:10 p.m. Roundtable: A New Approach to Reducing Incarceration While Maintaining Low Rates of Crime
Author: Steven Raphael
Professor of Public Policy, Goldman School of Public Policy, University of California, Berkeley
Author: Michael Stoll
Professor and Chair of Public Policy, School of Public Affairs; Associate Director, Center for the Study of Urban Poverty, University of California, Los Angeles
@UCLALuskin
Discussant: Dean Esserman
Police Chief, New Haven, Connecticut
Discussant: Cristine DeBerry
Chief of Staff for the District Attorney, City and County of San Francisco
@CristineDeBerry
Discussant: Daniel Nagin
Teresa and H. John Heinz III University Professor of Public Policy and Statistics, Carnegie Mellon University
Moderator: Melissa S. Kearney
Director, The Hamilton Project
@kearney_melissa
3:00 p.m. Break
3:15 p.m. Roundtable: A New Approach to Preventing Youth Violence and Dropout
Author: Jens Ludwig
McCormick Foundation Professor of Social Service Administration, Law, and Public Policy, The University of Chicago
Discussant: Elizabeth Glazer
Director, Office of Criminal Justice for New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio
Discussant: Robert Listenbee
Administrator, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, U.S. Department of Justice
Discussant: Laurence Steinberg
Distinguished University Professor and Laura H. Carnell Professor of Psychology, Temple University
@ldsteinberg
Moderator: Jim Tankersley
Economic Policy Correspondent
The Washington Post
@jimtankersley
4:00 p.m. Forum Adjourns
