Do you know that feeling that you are trying to do too much and not doing any of it well enough? If you are a human, that feeling is pretty intolerable. If you are a system, you may not even notice that you are overstressed. For decades, our criminal justice system has become increasingly overwhelmed and spread thin, and it is, accordingly, doing an abysmal job at accomplishing its core functions.

The system needs to be pared down so that it can aim itself at taking people who are making bad decisions and turning them into people who make good decisions. This goal, like that of parenting, is amorphous and individualized, and can’t be done without paying attention. Our criminal justice system is like a parent who has hundreds of kids and no idea how to take care of them. A parent treating all those kids the same.