American exceptionalism -- Conventional unwisdom : the war on drugs -- A brief history of time (served) -- Conventional unwisdom : private prisons, public spending -- The state of reform : what's happened, and what's at stake -- The man behind the curtain -- The politics of punishment -- The third rail : violent offenses -- Where do we go from here? -- Conclusion

"Pfaff argues that existing accounts of the causes of mass incarceration are fundamentally misguided. The most widely accepted explanations--the failed War on Drugs, draconian sentencing laws, an increasing reliance on private prisons--actually tell us much less than we like to think. Instead, Pfaff urges us to look at other factors, including a major shift in prosecutor behavior that occurred in the mid-1990s, when prosecutors began bringing felony charges against arrestees about twice as often as they had before"--Amazon.com