Professor Volokh is right that American prisons are considered to be “low quality,” and that they suffer from “high violence rates, bad medical care, [and] overuse of highly punitive measures like administrative segregation . . . .” But his proposed solution—a system of “prison vouchers” that would permit prisoners to choose their facilities and thus create a market for prison services—would provide only an illusion of choice. Even worse, such a system runs the risk of strengthening the self‐interested forces that drive our overgrown system of incarceration. Just when it seems that the United States may be turning a corner, Professor Volokh's “prison vouchers” proposal would create a market that we do not need.
Volume 160 Issue 1 2012 Response