The aim of this essay is to look at where the American punishment system has been in hopes of finding lessons that can help shape where it goes. There are four sections. The first, short because it covers much trodden ground, sketches the reasons why indeterminate sentencing imploded and some of the ideas, proposals, and policies to which the implosion gave shape. The second, not much longer, sketches prevailing explanations for why the policies of the past quarter century took the (...) shape they did, and concludes that most are unconvincing. The third demonstrates that prevailing ways of thinking about punishment are obsolete and incapable either of encompassing current policies and practices or of guiding development of emerging 21st century punishment systems. The last immodestly sets out some of the elements of new ways of thinking that may do a better job. (shrink)

Can punishments ever meaningfully be proportioned in severity to the seriousness of the crimes for which they are imposed? A great deal of attention has been paid to the general justification of punishment, but the thorny practical questions have received significantly less. Serious analysis has seldom delved into what makes crimes more or less serious, what makes punishments more or less severe, and how links are to be made between them. In Of One-eyed and Toothless Miscreants, Michael Tonry has gathered (...) together a distinguished cast of contributors to offer among the first sustained efforts to specify with precision how proportionality can be understood in relation to the implementation of punishment. Each chapter examines scholarly and lay thinking about punishment of people convicted of crimes with particular emphasis on "making the punishment fit the crime." The contributors challenge the most prevalent current theories and emphasize the need for a shift away from the politicized emotionalism of recent decades. They argue that theories that coincided with mass incarceration and rampant injustice to countless individuals are evolving in ways that better countenance moving toward more humane and thoughtful approaches.0Written by many of the leading thinkers on punishment, this volume dissects previously undeveloped issues related to considerations of deserved punishment and provides new ways to understand both the severities of punishment and the seriousness of crime. (shrink)