John Pfaff spoke with The Takeaway about President Obama’s campaign to overhaul the US criminal justice system.
“When Obama said that prison growth has been driven by nonviolent offenders serving for very long periods of time,” says John Pfaff, a professor at Fordham Law School who focuses on penal reform, “that was wrong on two fronts. It’s locking up violent offenders, and even then, not for that long. But the long sentences tend to be for violent, and not drug, cases.”