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Health and Incarceration A Workshop Summary (2013) / Chapter Skim
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Pages 37-40

The Chapter Skim interface presents what we've algorithmically identified as the most significant single chunk of text within every page in the chapter.
Select key terms on the right to highlight them within pages of the chapter.


From page 37...
... concurred, "There's something fundamentally off when the wealthiest society in the world maintains the world's largest prison population." Mauer stated that many now believe the United States incarcerates far too many people and keeps them incarcerated for far too long -- beyond the point of providing public safety, and at significant opportunity cost to other methods of promoting both public safety and public health. In practical terms, Faye Taxman pointed out that incarceration has lost its deterrent effect exactly because it has become so widespread.
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From page 38...
... Thus, "there's a deep paradox in the character of these institutions that we have to come to grips with." To do so, Western proposed a "virtuous circle" in which correctional facilities are actively involved in improving public health and the resulting gains in public health reduce prison populations. How could such a virtuous circle be generated and sustained?
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From page 39...
... Finally, Western emphasized the value of making transparent the impact of public health on public safety, broadly conceived. If the link between the two were more widely perceived, this would help sustain the virtuous circle, improving both health and safety.
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Key Terms

  • prison population
  • virtuous circle
  • prison populations
  • current rates
  • promote public

  • serving public
  • improving public
  • providing public
  • substantial public
  • mauer cited

  • eminently doable
  • building prisons
  • marc mauer
  • penological goals
  • incarcerated population

  • western suggested
  • significant opportunity
  • mauer referred
  • fellner argued
  • broadly conceived

  • jamie fellner
  • mauer stated
  • literature confirms
  • western proposed
  • world maintains

  • sociological literature
  • ongoing efforts
  • political engagement
  • socioeconomic disparities
  • opportunity cost


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