It is well documented that the effects of legal punishment tend to drift to the
family members, friends, and larger communities of convicted offenders. Instead of conceiving
of punishment drift as incidental to legal punishment, or as merely foreseen but not
intended by state authorities and thus permissible, I argue that efforts ought to be undertaken
to limit or ameliorate it. Failure to confine punishment drift comes perilously close to
punishment of the innocent and is at odds with other legal doctrines and broader penal
practices that hold offenders, and offenders alone, responsible for their crimes. Numerous
arguments urging tolerance of punishment drift, or more assertively defending it, are
examined and found wanting.

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• Punishment Drift: The Spread of Penal Harm and What We Should Do About It