United States prisons are full of crime. We cannot defend prisons in their current state of violence, on either retributive or consequentialist grounds. Specifically, prison crime makes prisons disproportionately cruel, disrespectful, and inefficient. In this Essay, I propose a novel response: “prison crime sentencing credits.” Sentencing credits would shorten the sentences of prison crime victims. In so doing, they would likely help to align our prisons with both retributive and consequentialist theories of punishment. And they may be increasingly feasible.
Author
J.D., 2023, Harvard Law School.
Copyright 2025 by Jacob Gordon
Cite as: Jacob Gordon, Crediting Prison Crime, 120 Nw. U. L. Rev. Online 139 (2025), https://scholarlycommons.law.northwestern.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1362&context=nulr_online.