On April 20, 1989, the barely alive body of a woman is discovered in Central Park, and within days five black and Latino teenagers confess to her rape and beating. The young men are convicted, despite the fact that the teens quickly recant their inconsistent and inaccurate confessions and that no blood or DNA tests tie any of them to the victim.

"Felony conviction and mass incarceration attract considerable media attention these days, yet the most common criminal-justice encounters are for misdemeanors, not felonies, and the most common outcome is not prison. In the early 1990s, New York City launched an initiative under the banner of Broken Windows policing to dramatically expand enforcement against low-level offenses. Misdemeanorland is the first book to document the fates of the hundreds...