Speaking of Blogs That Deserve More Attention

Matthew Bowen at Prevention Works has a typically thoughtful post up regarding Jim Austin’s recent report on overincarceration and how to deal with the excess. He’s right that even those who are seriously concerned about the most cost- and victim-effective means of controlling crime habitually overlook everything that can be done to stop crime from happening to start with. Using prisons to fight crime is like using hospitals to fight disease. Prevention should be the starting point from which everything else follows. It’s not rocket science, but too many interests and habits, too many sunk costs that got paid before sense could prevail, would be overturned by taking prevention seriously, and even the advocates of greater rationality fail to see that. Thankfully we’ve got Matthew and his crew actively fighting the good fight to turn that around.