The crime rate does not continue to drop as our
prisons expand. It is even possible that an unintended
consequence of over-incarceration is an increased crime
problem.
It would seem logical that if we keep putting more
criminals in prison, then the crime rate will keep getting
lower at the same time. In fact, Texas is a good example
of how that has not worked. Since the early 1990’s,
Texas has tripled the size of its prisons. Texas expanded
its prison space, and the number of people in prison, faster
than any other state. But the crime rate did not decline
in Texas more than all other states.
The crime rate went down in California and in New
York state much more than in Texas, yet those states increased
the number of people in prison much less than Texas.
Over-incarceration might actually increase crime.
Researchers are now studying whether there is a "tipping
point" in communities that have high incarceration rates.
We might start to increase the crime when we remove so
many working-age and parenting-age males from the community.
Studies show that children who have parents in prison are 6 - 8 times more likely to go to prison themselves. When a nonviolent parent is removed from the home and sent to prison, the family suffers most. The whole community suffers after this "tipping point" where a certain percentage of all the working fathers in one community are in prison.
Instead of sending more people to prison, we should focus on stopping the annual, inter-generational migrations in and out of our most impacted communities.
