Mark Kleiman

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Mark A. R. Kleiman is an American professor, author, and blogger who is a Professor of Public Policy at the UCLA School of Public Affairs. Kleiman is a nationally recognized expert^[1] in the field of crime and drug policy and the author of Marijuana: Costs of Abuse, Costs of Control and Against Excess: Drug Policy for Results.^[2] He is generally liberal, and a supporter of Obama for President 2008, as frequently discussed on Kleiman's blog. Kleiman is critical of mandatory prison sentences, hawkish drug policy, the War on Terror, the mainstream press, immigration controls, most Republicans, and particularly of George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, and Karl Rove. Kleiman sometimes disputes the commentary of fellow blogger and prominent UCLA professor Eugene Volokh. Although he is politically outspoken on his blog and in his personal life, Kleiman is known at UCLA as a fair and popular professor.

He is a research fellow at the Program for Criminal Justice Policy and Management at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, an adjunct scholar at the Center for American Progress, and was Thomas C. Schelling Visiting Professor at the School of Public Policy at the University of Maryland (2006-2007).

Kleiman grew up in Baltimore. He is a graduate of Haverford College, and received an M.P.P. and Ph.D. in Public Policy at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University in 1985.

Kleiman was a legislative aide to Congressman Les Aspin and a special assistant to Polaroid CEO Edwin Land.

From 1979 to 1983, Kleiman worked for the Office of Policy and Management Analysis in the Criminal Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, and in 1982-83 he was its director and a member of the National Organized Crime Planning Council. From 1977 to 1979, he was Deputy Director for Management and Director of Program Analysis for the Office of Management and Budget of the City of Boston.

Kleiman is the editor of the Drug Policy Analysis Bulletin. Kleiman also advises governments from the local to federal levels on crime control and drug policy.

Kleiman frequently writes for The American Prospect. His blog, The Reality-Based Community, covers everything from sports to political ethics and the war in Iraq. His next book will be When Brute Force Fails: Strategy for Crime Control.