The problem is that there is a lot of evidence that justice reform efforts being explored today do work in many ways, and are generally evidence based, but only go so far in a society that has trended towards becoming more economically and socially unequal.

It has generally been established that more unequal societies have more crime, and that much of the correlation comes from conspicuous consumption in an unequal environment. Altogether it is not surprising that many parts of the United States are currently on a path towards increasing crime rates.