Response: One Market We Do Not Need

Abstract:     
The author responds to Alexander Volokh’s, Prison Vouchers, 160 U. Pa. L. Rev. 779 (2012). She argues that Professor Volokh is right that American prisons are considered to be “low quality,” and that they suffer from “high violence rates, bad medical care, [and] overuse of highly punitive measures like administrative segregation . . . .” But his proposed solution — a system of “prison vouchers” that would permit prisoners to choose their facilities and thus create a market for prison services — would provide only an illusion of choice. Even worse, such a system runs the risk of strengthening the self-interested forces that drive our overgrown system of incarceration. Just when it seems the United States may finally be turning away from its over-reliance on incarceration, Professor Volokh's "prison vouchers" proposal runs the risk of kick-starting prison growth.

Number of Pages in PDF File: 12

Keywords: prison, prison vouchers, incarceration, Alexander Volokh

Accepted Paper Series