William Spelman – författare

There is nothing uglier than a catfish. With its scaleless, eel-like body, flat, semicircular head, and cartilaginous whiskers, it looks almost entirely unlike a cat. The toothless, sluggish beasts can be found on the bottom of warm streams and lakes, living on scum and detritus. Such a diet is healthier than it sounds: divers in the Ohio River regularly report sighting catfish the size of small whales, and cats in the Mekong River in Southeast Asia often weigh nearly 700 pounds. Ugly or not, the catfish is good to eat. Deep-fried catfish is a Southern staple; more ambitious recipes add Parmesan cheese, bacon drippings and papri­ ka, or Amontillado. Catfish is also good for you. One pound of channel catfish provides nearly all the protein but only half the calories and fat of 1 pound of solid white albacore tuna. Catfish is a particularly good source of alpha­ tocopherol and B vitamins. Because they are both nutritious and tasty, cats are America's biggest aquaculture product.

This book is the first attempt to bring together diverse research on criminal offenders to estimate the effectiveness of incapacitation. The author analyzes inmate surveys, arrest records, and other data to estimate the production function of the criminal justice system; determines likely benefits and costs of general and selective incapacitation policies; and details an economic theory to help policymakers decide on the appropriate level of imprisonment.