🚀 go-pugleaf

"Al" <albert.finney000@geemail.coom> wrote in message 
news:albert.finney000-0B5F04.13574201032008@news-server.tx.rr.com...
>> >
>> >> Now, see if you can be equally cute pondering why the US
>> >> imprisons more people on a percentage basis than any other "free" or
>> >> communist country on earth.  Use extra cuteness.
>> >
>> >My guess is that law enforcement is becoming more efficient through
>> >technology, combined with the influx of people and the disaster of LBJ's
>> >Great Society.
>>
>> And you be ........... totally wrong. The crime rate is not up much.
>> What has happened is a combo of longer sentences with no parole, 3
>> strikes laws, and the idiocy of imprisoning minor drug offenders. Why
>> don't you read the article before adding your inane comments? Or can't
>> you read?
>
> I cannot read, sorry, but actually the crime rate has been declining for
> years, decades.
>
> I wonder if there's any correlation, or as the NYT wonders at least once
> a year "if crime is down, why are we building more prisons?"

Crime, especially violent crimes, started declining about 16-18 years after 
abortions were made legal (Roe vs. Wade). Coincidence? Or poor single 
mothers being able to avoid having a child born into poverty (and later 
crime, since there is a correlation between poverty and crime)[1].

Let's make this a simple math exercise for Al.
We know for a fact that the average prison term have become longer[2] in the 
last number of years. If we say that the sentence on average increase 25% (I 
think it is more, though), and the crime rate decrease 10%, what is the end 
result?
It is still a noticeble increase in days behind bars (something like a 22.5% 
increase). Since the same (or slightly less) number of people are spending 
more days in prison, more prisons are needed. It is simple math. Junior HS 
level, or even middle school. :-)

> So puzzling.

Not really.

/KHM

[1] Not to say that rich people don't commit crime. See Kenneth Lay/Enron, 
etc.
[2] See the wbyeats comment that you even quote. Less/no parole, longer 
sentences than before for the same crime ("tough on crime"), 3 strikes, etc. 
They all together increase the average jail time.