Jeff Morenoff talks about the high costs of imprisonment as a crime deterrent, in general, and the downside of a new Michigan law that treats some kinds of shoplifting as a felony punishable by prison time. To bring down the crime rate, Morenoff says, money invested in incarceration would be better spent for improved policing, early life programs for kids, social-cognitive skill development for offenders, and even probation sentences with vigilant monitoring and very swift prison time for any violation.

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