UC Berkeley NewsCenter, May 7, 2009 by Cathy Cockrell
http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2009/05/07_crime2.shtml
“When we say that we want government to be tough on crime, we mean that we want prison sentences to be long and the rhetoric to be sharp. But we don’t actually hold government accountable for reducing crime. If we did, we wouldn’t put up with prisons that produce 70 percent recidivism rates. We would long ago have said ‘Why are we building and supporting these prisons if they’re failing most of the time?’ Instead we’ve been satisfied with the rhetoric of toughness, and an emotional appeal to solidarity with the victim and disparaging disdain for the offender. We’ve taken government off the hook.”