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A Neat, Plausible, & Wrong Answer to the "Too Many Prisoners" Problem

By Kent Scheidegger et al.

The Washington Post has this editorial, titled "Too Many Prisoners." The editorial bemoans the high number of prisoners and the financial burden of the prisons. No dispute there. The editorial also says, "Tough sentences for murder, rape and the like are unquestionably necessary and contributed to a drop in such crimes over the past two decades." Right. Then there is this sentence: "But prisons should be focused on holding the most dangerous criminals rather than on warehousing nonviolent, first-time offenders." The implicit premise in this statement is that a large chunk of the current prison population consists of offenders who are in the big house for their first offense of a nonviolent crime and that releasing people who fit that description would make a big dent in the prison population...continue to full post

Full post as published by Crime and Consequences on July 11, 2008 (boomark / email).