Why We Should Lock Up Rich Criminals
It actually may end the nation’s mass incarceration problem.
Elizabeth Warren has stood out as one of the 2020 race’s most important candidates for her policy proposals. A newsworthy Warren policy seems to come out every month. In January, it was her policy for a wealth tax, which would go beyond the high marginal tax rates that many progressives and 2020 candidates support. Her most recent proposal would place wealthy executives in jail for data breaches and other negligent behavior. This effort struck some observers as missing the bigger picture. Carissa Byrne Hessick and Benjamin Levin at Slate argued that such arrests would only further the nation’s infatuation with harsh prison sentences. They note that Warren is right to argue “the rich and poor are treated differently in the criminal system. But we should not use the much-criticized treatment of poor defendants, particularly poor defendants of color, as a model for policymaking.” The focus, according to Hessick and Levin, instead should be on restorative justice and regulatory regimes, even for unsympathetic individuals like pharmaceutical executives or the leaders of Cambridge Analytica.
Contrary to Hessick and Levin, placing wealthy criminals in jail would not contribute to mass incarceration. In fact, it would most likely diminish support for mass incarceration faster than any other concerted…
