Why did the prison population increase while crime decreased?
There are many reasons for this. First, we incarcerate people for non violent offenses, and for long terms in the case of low level drug offenses. Second, beginning in the 1970’s, many states began to empty mental hospitals with the stated intention of replacing them with community based treatment facilities. All too often these did not materialize. We warehouse people who commit crimes while suffering from from mental illness instead of providing them, upfront, with the kind of treatment services that might have prevented a crime in the first place. We are also an extremely punitive society. Many politicians run on slogans (rather than thoughtful policy) without really considering the issue of what works. The death penalty, for example, has been advocated with eye for an eye slogans, without considering whether it is really an effective method of crime prevention and control.
