The American criminal justice system is undergoing a reevaluation at many levels. In recent years, drug prosecutions, imposition of the death penalty, wrongful convictions and the militarization of our police have all been placed under the microscope of public discontent. Inevitably these discussions lead to one fact that cannot be avoided: the realization that America imprisons more of its citizens than any other nation in the world.

Despite being only five percent of the world’s population, America has nearly 25 percent of the world’s adult prisoners. More than half of those inmates are serving lengthy terms for the sale of drugs. In California alone, 3,700 inmates who never committed a violent crime are serving sentences of 25 years to life. After decades of advocating for longer prison sentences, Americans have come to the realization that they are not the answer. At the same time, there are no easy solutions to solving the problems created by the modern prison system.

"INCARCERATION NATIONS is a thoughtful, well-written and distressing look at the problems we face in our nation and in the world. Dreisinger does not claim to have the answers to our problems, but she has reminded us that doing nothing is an unacceptable alternative."

Professor Baz Dreisinger teaches in the English department at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. She is the founder and Academic Director of the Prison-to-College-Pipeline, which offers college courses and reentry programs to incarcerated men throughout New York State and seeks to increase access to higher education for individuals during and after incarceration. In INCARCERATION NATIONS, Dreisinger undertook a journey to the prison communities of nine countries around the world. Her goal was to determine how prisons are functioning. She wanted to discover what might make prisons successful, as well as reflect on the injustice and inhumanity that too often seems to be the common thread of incarceration regardless of national origin.

Perhaps the major point to come from Dreisinger’s world travels is that prisons, by their very nature, have harmful elements. You cannot deprive people of their freedoms and force them to abide by rules in a kind and generous way. No one is even suggesting that. In Australia, however, Dreisinger found Wandoo Reintegration Facility, a prison for males ages 18-24. Inmates are not placed in a general prison population as they would in America. They are treated as residents with rights, and provided with training and education with an emphasis on life skills. The goal is to prepare them for release. There was an era in America when this was an objective of incarceration. But political reality forced overcrowding of prisons, and rehabilitative programs were the first to be cut from the budget. Ironically, in America it costs more to imprison a person for one year than to educate them at our most prestigious colleges.

Dreisinger found hell-hole prisons in her travels, with Jamaica and Uganda being tragic examples. But even there, some art and music programs were offered. Such activities may be well-meaning, but they represent very minor attempts to change overall prison philosophies that are in need of a major overhaul.

There is quite a bit to digest in INCARCERATION NATIONS. Sadly, nobody really has an answer. It is impossible to undo centuries of theories and philosophies no matter how much evidence exists for them being wrong and ineffective. Perhaps that is the result of the political winds that always blow towards harsh treatment of criminals. Listen to politicians from around the world, and you will rarely find the advocate for those languishing in prison.

INCARCERATION NATIONS is a thoughtful, well-written and distressing look at the problems we face in our nation and in the world. Dreisinger does not claim to have the answers to our problems, but she has reminded us that doing nothing is an unacceptable alternative.