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9 Conn. Pub. Int. L.J. 17 (2009-2010)
Mass Imprisonment, Crime Rates, and the Drug War: A Penological and Humanitarian Disgrace

handle is hein.journals/cpilj9 and id is 21 raw text is: Mass Imprisonment, Crime Rates, and the Drug War: A Penological and Humanitarian Disgrace STEVEN B. DUKEt The explosion in our prison population began in 1973, the same year President Nixon declared war on drugs. During the preceding forty years, the prison population was stable at around 200,000.' Since 1970, however, the number of people in U.S. prisons and jails has increased 800 percent2 and our rate of imprisonment, the percentage of the population in prison or jail, is up more than 500 percent.3 The United States not only has the largest number of people in prison,4 nearly one fourth of the world's total prison population, it has the highest rate of imprisonment in the world.6 There is much speculation about the causes of this mass imprisonment mania,7 but the mechanisms by which mass imprisonment was accomplished are clear. We have continued to arrest people at about the same rate since 1973,8 but since then we have sentenced those we convict to prison, for much longer terms, with fewer opportunities for parole or Professor of Law, Yale Law School. I am grateful for the research assistance of Brendan Cottington, Ryan Harrington, and David Perez. Errors and opinions are mine. ' See CRAIG HANEY, REFORMING PUNISHMENT 63 fig 3.2 (2006). 2 JAMES AUSTIN, ET AL., JFA INSTITUTE, UNLOCKING AMERICA: WHY AND HOW TO REDUCE AMERICA'S PRISON POPULATION 1 (2007), available at http://www.jfa-associates.com/publications/ srs/UnlockingAmerica/pdf. The U.S imprisonment rate per 100,000 of population in 1970 was 95.1. U.S. DEP'T OF COMMERCE., STATISTICAL ABSTRACT OF THE U.S. 1974, at 164 tbl.281 (1974), available at http://www2.census.gov/ prod2/statcomp/documents/1974-03.pdf. The rate in 2006 was 501. Sourcebook of Crim. Just. Stat. Online, tbl.6.29.2006 (2006), available at http://www.albany.edu /sourcebook/pdf/t6292006.pdf (last visited Nov. 15, 2009). AUSTIN, supra note 2, at 3. Glenn Loury, A Nation of Jailers, CATO UNBOUND, March 11, 2009, available at http://www.cato-unbound.org/2009/03/11/glenn-loury/a-nation-of-jailers/. The U.S. has about 5 % of the world's population. Id. 6 AUSTIN, supra note 2, at 3. See John F. Pfaff, The Empirics of Prison Growth: A Critical Review and Path Forward, 98 J. CRIM. L. & CRIMINOLOGY L. REV. 547 (2008); Adam M. Gershowitz, An Informational Approach to the Mass Imprisonment Problem, 40 ARIZ. ST. L.J. 47 (2008); Yair Listokin, Does More Crime Mean More Prisoners? An Instrumental Variables Approach, 46 J.L. & ECON. 181 (2003). 8 U.S. DEP'T OF COMMERCE, STATISTICAL ABSTRACT OF THE U.S., at 152 tbl.254 (1974), available at http://www2.census.gov/prod2/statcomp/documents/1974-03.pdf; U.S. CENSUS BUREAU, STATISTICAL ABSTRACT OF THE U.S. 2006, LAW ENFORCEMENT, COURTS, AND PRISONs 204 tbl.313 (2006), available at http://www.census.gov/compendia/ statab/2006/lawenforcement_courtsprisons/law.pdf.

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