Mark Albert Robert Kleiman (born May 18, 1951) 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.
His most recent book is entitled When Brute Force Fails: How to Have Less Crime and Less Punishment..Against Excess. Here, he makes a ground breaking argument: drug enforcement agencies should view arrest and incarceration of offenders as a "loss" not a "win.". By setting up systems in which resources are concentrated to ensure certain arrest for the worst offenders rather than a small risk of arrest for all, agencies can create environments with less drug abuse, less incarceration, and, most importantly, safer streets.
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.
Kleiman stated that he does not oppose the InnerChange Freedom Initiative program, but he is opposed to the University of Pennsylvania's Center for Research on Religion and Urban Civil Society study about the program.[2]