Can Prosecutors End Mass Incarceration?

Rachel E. Barkow*

A Review of Charged: The New Movement to Transform American Prosecution and End Mass Incarceration by Emily Bazelon.

*Vice Dean and Charles Seligson Professor of Law; Faculty Director, Center on the Administration of Criminal Law, NYU School of Law. Thanks to Ben Hoynes, Jenna Pearlson, Dan Schiano, and Naomi Schmidt for helpful research assistance. Thanks to Emily Bazelon, Ryan Bubb, John Ferejohn, David Garland, Courtney Oliva, Judith Reznik, Steve Schulhofer, Jacob Schuman, Vincent Sutherland, and Kenji Yoshino and the participants in faculty workshops at Penn State and NYU for helpful comments on an earlier draft of this review. I am particularly thankful that Emily Bazelon pushed me to be less of a glass-is-half-empty person in characterizing what progressive prosecutors have achieved so far.