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| Getting Prison Numbers Down—For Good |
| By thecrimereport.org - Malcolm C. Young |
| Published: 01/03/2012 |
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Some commentators are celebrating the decrease in prison population numbers reported for 2010 by the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS)—and they should. Any attention to mass incarceration is welcome in a nation where prison reformers, community groups, advocates from across the political spectrum, major foundations, and many policymakers favor reducing prison incarceration—currently at levels that have no peacetime historical or international precedent. Yet despite evidence that the U.S. as a whole may at last have turned away from the annual increases in state prison incarceration that began in the early 1970s, it remains to be seen whether progress toward meaningful reductions will proceed at a pace necessary to have a significant impact on the phenomenon. The basis for broad-based and deep change in sentencing and corrections practices has not yet emerged. More Than a Symbolic Decrease The decrease of 9,228 prisoners, just six tenths of one percent of the more than 1.6 million in state and federal custody, is a small step. But it has symbolic value that many hope will launch further and faster decreases. There are substantive changes as well: Read More. |
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