NCJ Number
80207
Date Published
Unknown
Length
0 pages
Annotation
A critical assessment is made of pretrial detention practices and the general social inequities within which they take place.
Abstract
The speaker, Caleb Foot, sees crime, along with pollution and traffic fatalities, as the inevitable consequences of the nature of contemporary civilization. The general inequities of opportunity that characterize U.S. society are particularly conducive to crime. Decriminalization and the spending of increased resources on crime prevention may decrease crime somewhat; essentially, however, the present crime rate is something the public must learn to accept and to live with. Pretrial detention represents the exploitation of the powerless for the benefit of the powerful. It is the detained who assume the costs of the system and this gives rise to contempt for the system. Research is needed on those who are still detained in institutions and are not dangerous.