This edited collection provides an international collection of essays addressing the most important challenge confronting courts in all jurisdictions, common and civil law: how can we restrict the use of imprisonment to avoid unnecessary human and fiscal costs? Different court systems have devised a range of approaches but few have worked. This book represents no fewer than 12 jurisdictions including both civil and common law countries and includes chapters from legal scholars and philosophers and empirical researchers. This book speaks widely, given the interest in the use of custod, and the pressing need to reduce prison costs.

Jakub Drápal is Associate Professor in the Faculty of Law at Charles University in the Czech Republic and Director of its Center for Criminal Justice and Crime Studies.

Julian V. Roberts is Professor at the University of Oxford, UK, and Executive Director of Sentencing Academy of England and Wales.