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Violent Crimes, Not Drug Crimes, Drove Prison Growth Over Past Decade

August 20, 2001 – An Atlanta Journal-Constitution editorial analyzes the latest report from the Bureau of Justice Statistics. It notes that violent offenders, not drug offenders, drove the rise in prison construction over the past decade, as the graph above, prepared by National Families in Action, makes clear. What's more, the steady rise in the number of imprisoned Americans appears to be leveling off and actually declined the latter half of this year.

The editorial notes, "A New York Times article. . .seemed to find it ironic that the prison population rose dramatically in the 1990s, ‘even growing each year . . . as crime dropped.' A lot of people just can't understand that criminals in jail can't go around committing crimes; the declining crime rate of the '90s had several causes, but the increased emphasis on tougher enforcement and longer sentences is an undeniable one.

"The report brought other agenda-seekers out of the woodwork, too, seeking one more red herring in their efforts to make life easier for people who are ‘legally challenged.'

"Those who think drugs aren't really all that bad leaped to the explanation that the prison population leveled off because some states are taking a softer line on drug users, providing treatment instead of incarceration. Some are doing that, but the BJS report makes it clear that it wasn't drug offenders who were driving the increases of the past decade. ‘As a percentage of the total growth, violent offenders accounted for 51 percent of the growth; drug offenders 20 percent; property offenders 14 percent; and public-order offenders 15 percent.'"

Source: "Prison Statistics Show Crackdown Is Working," The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, August 14, 2001.

 

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