Document Type
Book Note
Abstract
OVER THE PAST DECADE, the criminal justice system has been confronted with a staggering increase in prosecutions of corporations. In Too Big to Jail: How Prosecutors Compromise with Corporations,1 Brandon L. Garrett explores the “hidden world” of corporate prosecutions2 and looks at what happens when a major company is prosecuted in the United States. Using compiled data of corporate settlement agreements and convictions from the past decade, the author reveals that prosecutors fail to effectively punish corporate crimes. Garrett draws upon his research to bring the necessary attention to corporate crime and to reflect on whether enough is being done to properly hold corporations accountable for their misconduct. In chapter one, Garrett sets the tone for the disheartening notion that large organizations are “too big to jail” and details the many challenges faced by federal prosecutors, analogizing a corporate prosecution to the Biblical battle between David and Goliath. The author examines the more lenient approaches used by federal prosecutors, noting a decline in convictions of companies accompanied by an expansion in the use of deferred prosecution and non-prosecution agreements, which are settlement agreements that focus on improving and restructuring the corporation.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Citation Information
Pearlston, Maya.
"Book Note: Too Big To Jail: How Prosecutors Compromise With Corporations, by Brandon L. Garrett."
Osgoode Hall Law Journal
53.3 (2016)
: 1130-1132.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.60082/2817-5069.3058
https://digitalcommons.osgoode.yorku.ca/ohlj/vol53/iss3/22