Okay, we're live. Hi, this is William Ramsey. Welcome to William Ramsey Investigates on today's show. I have a very special guest, a returning guest. We spoke back in August 2021. His name is Dr. William R. Kelly. And we talked about a book he wrote and published just this year. The title of that book in our talk is the crisis in America's Criminal Courts, Improving Criminal

Justice Outcomes by Transforming Decision Making. And today we're going to talk about one of his

earlier books published in 2019. The title of this one, and if you can see on YouTube,

title is The Future of Crime and Punishment, Smart Policies for Reducing Crime and Saving Money, published 2019.

Dr. Kelly is a professor of sociology and director of the Center for Criminology and Criminal Justice Research at the University of Texas at Austin.

He is taught and conducted research in criminology and criminal justice for over 25 years and is published extensively on a

variety of justice matters and some of his earlier books are confronting underground justice

reinventing plea bargaining for effective criminal justice reform published 2018 from retribution to public

safety disruptive innovation of american criminal justice. Criminal Justice at the Crossroads,

Transforming Crime and Punishment, published 2015, and then Justice Under Pressure, a comparison

of recidivism patterns among four successive parolee cohorts. Now is published 2012. But again,

the title of this book is The Future of Crime and Punishment, Smart Policies for

Reducing Crime and Saving Money. So Dr. Kelly, thank you so much for returning. Thank you for inviting

me. I really appreciate it. Awesome. Well, for people who may not have heard our last discussion

and not know your background. You've taught for 25 years. You published extensive research

for 25 years.

Can you kind of talk about some of your background and what led you to write this particular book,

The Future of Crime and Punishment?

I'd be happy to.

If it was only 25 years I've been teaching, I've been at this probably for more like 35 years.

I'm sorry. No, no, but I believe me, it's perfectly fine.

And I've taught criminology and criminal justice

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