The real reason mass incarceration happened (HRC GROUP) [View all]

[Her Sister]

http://www.vox.com/2016/4/11/11399870/mass-incarceration-cause
Excerpts:

Unintended consequences are a constant in politics, and many veteran Democrats talk about the prison boom of the late 20th century as if it's an example of them. Speaking about the '94 crime bill last May, for example, Bill Clinton said, "The problem [with] the way it was written and implemented is we cast too wide a net and we had too many people in prison," as if they'd intended to fight crime but hadn't intended to end up with quite so many people behind bars.

In fact, the bill, which passed with a large, bipartisan majority including liberal stalwarts like Bernie Sanders and Ted Kennedy, wasn't a major cause of mass incarceration in a literal sense. But both the bill itself and, in some ways more importantly, the rhetoric Clinton used about the bill (which was different from the rhetoric Sanders used) were part of the larger trend of "tough on crime" politics that unquestionably drove America's prison population to new heights.

And when trying to understand what really caused mass incarceration, it's important not to overthink it. Mass incarceration happened because mass incarceration was popular.

The crime rate was high in the 1980s and '90s, so there were plenty of criminals to lock up. And people wanted them locked up. The public favored longer, harsher prison terms, more executions, and a punitive rhetoric that would back those things up. Indeed, the public didn't just favor these things — it demanded them. Crime and punishment was a voting issue for the 1990s electorate, and most politicians representing any kind of substantial urban area embraced harsher punishment of criminals.