The American people are basically right about violent crime. Most prisoners are violent or repeat criminals.
Prisons do cut crime .
Americans must search for better, more cost-effective ways of preventing violent crime and protecting themselves and their loved ones from violent and repeat criminals, adult and juvenile. But our first order of business must be restraining known, convicted, violent and repeat criminals. Restraining violent criminals is a necessary but insufficient condition for meeting America's crime challenges, reforming the justice system, and restoring public trust in the system and in representative democracy itself. We hope that people will take the time to read this report from cover to cover. The national media have generally ignored the truth about the extent and dire consequences of revolving-door justice and the social benefits of incarceration.