For the first time in 40 years, the number of prisoners in state prison systems has dropped, according to a new report from the Pew Center on the States. During the past four decades, the number of prisoners rose precipitously -- by more than 700 percent -- as more people were sent to prison and kept there longer.
While the financial crisis helps explain some of the drop, as states released some prisoners as a way to cut costs in the face of budget deficits, the study from Pew notes that the population began to decline in 2007, before the crisis really took hold. Many states began to realize their tax dollars could be more effectively spent through diversionary and other programs. While the number of prisoners rose so fast, the direct costs of incarcerating them rose as well. That doesn't even count the opportunity costs of all those people spending years in prison. And while the center hedges a bit and says the very small decline could be a seasonal adjustment, the study notes that several things -- from advances in supervision technology to increased budget pressure -- could make the drop more likely to continue. The mistake was in thinking we could ever afford to emphasize incarceration in our criminal-justice system.
-- Monica Potts