After the Fall: Assessing the Impact of the Great Prison Experiment on Future Crime Control Policy

This article summarizes available research on the impact of the increased use of incarceration on crime rates and identifies the effects of incarceration on individual offenders (specific deterrence, rehabilitation effects) and on communities (incapacitation, general deterrence effects). The author then compares crime reduction effects of incarceration-focused strategies to other criminal justice-focused strategies and considers the prospects for future crime control policies that result in improved individual and community-level outcomes.