Books by William R. Kelly

This book highlights the variety of problems that judges, prosecutors, and public defenders face within a criminal justice system that is ineffective, unfair, and extraordinarily expensive. Much of the dysfunction originates from crushing dockets and caseloads combined with the lack of time, expertise, and resources for effective decision-making.

Confronting Underground Justice identifies major problems with plea negotiation and the pretrial system and provides transformative recommendations to reduce crime and recidivism.

From Retribution to Public Safety places clinical assessment and intervention of mentally, intellectually and neurocognitively disordered offenders squarely in the middle of criminal justice reform and develops a roadmap for appropriate changes to criminal law and procedure as well as public health.

With recidivism rates north of 70% and tens of billions of dollars wasted annually on policies that assume we can punish the crime out of criminal offenders, America's fixation with "tough on crime" has been an utter failure. William R. Kelly lays out a roadmap for how to effectively reduce recidivism, crime, victimization and cost.

Over the past forty years, the criminal justice system in the United States has engaged in a very expensive policy failure, attempting to punish its way to public safety, with dismal results. So-called "e;tough on crime"e; policies have not only failed to effectively reduce crime, recidivism, and victimization but also created an incredibly inefficient system that routinely fails the public, taxpayers, crime victims, criminal offenders, their families, and their communities.Strategies that focus on behavior change are much more productive and cost effective for reducing crime than punishment, and in this book, William R. Kelly discusses the policy, process, and funding innovations and priorities that the United States needs to effectively reduce crime, recidivism, victimization, and cost. He recommends proactive, evidence-based interventions to address criminogenic behavior; collaborative decision making from a variety of professions and disciplines; and a focus on innovative alternatives to incarceration, such as problem-solving courts and probation. Students, professionals, and policy makers alike will find in this comprehensive text a bracing discussion of how our criminal justice system became broken and the best strategies by which to fix it.