How much is it going to cost to have that many people behind bars?
We’re currently spending about US$61 billion a year on incarceration, and to accommodate the additional 192,000 prisoners we’re projecting by 2011, we’re estimating it will cost another US$27.5 billion because new prisons will need to be constructed. All this must mean that equally huge numbers of Americans will also be working in prisons or building them or making prison uniforms or other things for convicts. Is it fair to say that crime or at least punishment is becoming central to the U.S. economy? It is an industry, there’s no doubt about it, but I have no idea what percentage of the economy it is. Aside from the crime rate, what’s driving the incarceration rate? Sentencing policies have a significant impact. Truth in sentencing, for instance, which means that when a person is convicted of a particular type of crime and is sentenced to a term of X length, he will in fact serve some guaranteed percentage of that time. Previously, sentences were plea-bargained, or otherwise reduced,
