Penn Lectures on the Criminal Justice System

One of the benefits of living in Center City is having access to the various public lectures the University of Pennsylvania offers on criminal justice issues.  A few weeks ago I attended a lecture on mass incarceration and the prospects for reform sponsored by the Urban Studies Program at Penn.  Professor of Sociology at Harvard University Bruce Western examined the impact of incarceration and the resulting increase in racial and economic inequality in our nation.  Last month, I also got the opportunity to listen to a lecture on reducing prison overcrowding hosted by the Department of Criminology at Penn.  Judge Steven Alm of Hawaii’s First Circuit, and Mark Kleiman, Professor of Public Policy at the UCLA School of Public Affairs, discussed their work with the successful HOPE program.  Hawaii's Opportunity Probation with Enforcement (HOPE) features frequent random drug testing of offenders on probation.  Those who test positive are subject to immediate but brief incarceration.  Based on studies conducted, the program has been shown to be effective in reducing drug abuse, crime, and incarceration in the population of offenders in the community on probation.  The program is noteworthy in that the penalties for failed drug tests encourages those who can stop their drug use through their own volition to do so.  This thereby allows valuable resources to be committed to those with the most serious substance abuse problems and who need professional assistance to overcome their addiction.  Together, Judge Alm and Professor Kleiman have promoted this program as a model that can be tailored for other cities struggling with large populations of offenders with substance abuse problems who are on probation and parole.