- US total crime rate down 37.7%
- US violent crime rate down 30.5%
- KY total crime rate down 5.8%
- KY violent crime rate down 27.1%
- US Incarceration rate up 139%
- KY Incarceration rate up 280.7%
Here’s a picture of what that has meant in Kentucky and
nationally from 1985 – 2012:
During this period, many believe
that the drop in crime is primarily caused by the enormous increase in
incarceration and the decrease in release. However, the “reality is far more
complex…. [A]bout 25% of the decline in violent
crime can be attributed to increased incarceration. While one-quarter of the
crime drop is not insubstantial, we then know that most of the decline in crime
— three quarters — was due to factors other than incarceration.” See: Ryan S. King,
Marc Mauer, Incarceration and Crime: A Complex Relationship (2005) at
3,4
These facts support a less
costly response to crime in the context of declining crime rates. “During the
last 30 years of incarceration growth, we have learned a great deal about the
financial and social costs and limited effectiveness of incarceration on crime
rates. While incarceration is one factor affecting crime rates, its impact is
more modest than many proponents suggest, and is increasingly subject to
diminishing returns. Increasing incarceration while ignoring more effective
approaches will impose a heavy burden upon courts, corrections and communities,
while providing a marginal impact on crime. Policymakers should assess these
dynamics and adopt balanced crime control policies that provide appropriate
resources and support for programming, treatment, and community support.” Id.
at 8.
The good
news: many policy makers are paying attention, including Kentucky policy
makers. According to a Pew December 2013 Report, in the last 5 years,
often with the assistance of that Pew's Public Safety Performance
Project, “the majority of states reduced both crime and imprisonment rates. The
relationship between crime and incarceration is complex, but states are showing
that it is possible to reduce them at the same time.” That has been what has
occurred in Kentucky with the help of Pew.
There is
energy from people along the entire political spectrum for commonsense criminal
justice reform. In a 2003 article Three Strikes And You're Broke, Cal
Thomas reflected what people are thinking, “After two decades of being ‘tough
on crime’ by ‘locking them up and throwing away the key’ - to recall two of the
effective political slogans of the past - the bill has come due. ….What are
taxpayers getting for their money? They get a false sense of security, as if
putting current criminals behind bars insures there won't be future criminals.
If locking up everyone now committing crimes would eliminate crime, I'd be all
for it, but new criminals are born, or made, every day. Something is wrong with
the system….We do retribution well. We should be focusing on restitution.”
The December
2013 Pew Report demonstrates that “Prison decline has little impact on crime
rates.”
Pew's Public
Safety Performance Project works with states to advance data-driven, fiscally
sound policies and practices in the criminal and juvenile justice systems that
protect public safety, hold offenders accountable, and control corrections costs.
Read more about Kentucky’s decline in imprisonment and crime rate in the
last 5 years and how Kentucky ranks compared to other states in the
December 2013 PEW Report, States Cut Both Crime and Imprisonment
at this link.
Contributed by Ed Monahan
