David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants

he returns to his old neighborhood.
There’s a good chance he’s been
psychologically damaged by his time
behind bars. His employment prospects
have plummeted. While in prison, he’s
lost many of his noncriminal friends and
replaced them with fellow-criminal
friends. And now he’s back, placing
even more strain emotionally and
financially on the home that he shattered
by leaving in the first place.
Incarceration creates collateral damage.
In most cases, the harm done by
imprisonment is smaller than the
benefits; we’re still better off for putting
people behind bars. But Clear’s point is
that if you lock up too many people for
too long, the collateral damage starts to