ABSTRACT
This chapter revisits early utilitarian arguments for leniency in punishment in order to put recent reformist agitation and public policy in contact with Beccarian thinking. It takes Beccaria to be trying to shift opinion towards an initially unpalatable leniency and away from sanguinary punishment. While the chapter dwells on the differences between Kantian deontologists and Beccarian consequentialists, as introductory studies tend to do, It choose to see these two positions as potential allies in the liberalization of criminal justice. The crucial problem in attempting to apply Beccaria's principles is that Beccaria fully supports the use of incarceration and accepts the deterrent effect of long incarceration at hard labor. Proportionality is a key principle for Kant and Beccaria. Changes from the false certainty of plea bargaining to the properly individualized treatment of offenders are probably the most pressing reforms needed in the American criminal justice system.
