Later today, the White House and the Brennan Center for Justice will host an event pressing for the release of thousands of convicted federal felons in the name of sentencing reform. During this event, titled “The Economic Consequences of the Criminal Justice System,” those consequences will likely be portrayed as dire, indeed, a burden of massive, though purportedly unnecessary, costs.

Most efforts to understand the criminal justice system calculate the costs and social burden of crime, what most of us regard as the underlying cause of sadly necessary criminal justice expenditures.