Contributor(s): Dr Christopher Bennett, Professor Kimberley Brownlee, Andrew Neilson | In this time of austerity, many of those who want a small state are also committed to a highly expensive criminal justice apparatus that has little demonstrable deterrent effect. But are there other, more direct arguments against the use of imprisonment as a dominant form of punishment? If so, what are they? Why do they so often fall on deaf ears? And does the current economic climate make it more likely that those in power will listen? Christopher Bennett is Senior Lecturer in Philosophy at the University of Sheffield. Kimberley Brownlee is Associate Professor in Legal and Moral Philosophy at the University of Warwick. Andrew Neilson is from theHoward League for Penal Reform. Peter Dennis is a Fellow in the Department of Philosophy, Logic and Scientific Method, LSE and a Forum for European Philosophy Fellow. The Forum for European Philosophy (@ForumPhilosophy) is an educational charity that organises a full and varied programme of philosophy and interdisciplinary events in the UK.