According to the Brennan Center for Justice, a New York University School of Law think tank, “getting tough on crime” with more punitive incarceration policies may be a lot of smoke and mirrors … in so many words.
In actual words, their latest report looks at data from 27 states over a 10-year period. They found that not only did crime decrease, but so did imprisonment. They also found that these decreases were politically and geographically diverse.
In the same study, researchers also found that some states in the South had large decreases in imprisonment, even though that region accounts for the country’s largest proportion of incarcerations.
Some of the reasons for the decreases appear to be changes in mandatory minimum sentencing, and a reclassification of certain crimes from felonies to misdemeanors.
Changes in the classifications of certain crimes are certainly a big help. But ultimately, a move away from incarceration as the panacea for societal ills—and replacement of the carceral state with more transformative justice policies—are what is needed.