The U.S. imprisonment rate has fallen for the fifth straight year. Here’s why.

[applegrove]

The U.S. imprisonment rate has fallen for the fifth straight year. Here’s why.

By Keith Humphreys at the Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2014/09/16/the-u-s-imprisonment-rate-has-fallen-for-the-fifth-straight-year-heres-why/

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Fourth, a new generation of evidence-based community supervision programs such as drug courts, 24/7 Sobriety, and HOPE probation are increasingly attracting the attention and support of state and federal policymakers. These programs monitor drug and alcohol-involved offenders more closely than traditional community supervision, providing a mixture of carrots and sticks that have protected public safety while simultaneously reducing substance use, crime and re-incarceration.

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Last, just as a high crime rate can create the conditions for more crime (e.g., by overwhelming law enforcement) and a low crime rate can create the conditions for less crime (e.g., by encouraging more citizens to walk the streets at night), lower imprisonment rates also appear capable of creating virtuous self-reinforcing cycles. Since the federal government began tracking incarceration almost 90 years ago, the years in which the incarceration rate dropped were concentrated in distinct eras rather than random periods of time. The first was during World War II, when the rate fell every year, dropping by 27% from 1940 to 1945. The incarceration rate also declined every year from the early 1960s until the early 1970s, before a massive wave of rising imprisonment began a three-decade run.

De-incarceration appears to be on another of its multi-year runs, and it’s not hard to see why. States are saving money by downsizing prisons and are not seeing crime rise. That encourages those states to continue pursuing reform and makes onlooking states more likely to mirror their de-incarceration initiatives.




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[LuvNewcastle]

1. That is great news.

My idea of progress is when they have to close prisons for lack of occupants. I sure would like to see free tuition at the state schools as well. I have a feeling that increasing enrollment in schools would also coincide with a declining prison population.

[hfojvt]

3. cannot be sure of that

http://www.kmbc.com/news/8-in-custody-in-connection-with-warrensburg-robberies/28103842

[Raster]

2. That is just a bummer for the prison-for-profit industry!

Bastahds! It's time to put prisons-for-profit out of business PERMANENTLY!

[Art_from_Ark]

4. It's unconscionable to have a prison-for-profit industry

It's also unconscionable to have private prison companies listed on stock exchanges

[Raster]

5. I could not agree more. The American prison-for-profit system - EVERYTHING ABOUT IT - is a vivid...

...hallmark of our decaying society. Prisons for profit? The founders would gag... and then start another revolution.