Why Are So Many Americans in Prison? A Provocative New Theory

slate.com

4 pointstokenadult4 comments

I am astounded by the fact that this "provocative" new theory is based on extremely simple and trivially verifiable facts.

How many times have I heard, even here on HN, claims that the high incarceration rates are due to the war on drugs, and I just took them at face value without bothering to look up the figures? How many times have newspapers printed interviews and op-eds arguing the same point, without doing any fact checking?

(Disclaimer: this time, too, I have not actually checked the numbers myself. But at least at this point I can be sure that someone has lied to me!)

Yes. Though perhaps you can look at the data differently to get that popular conclusion. For example people with drug convictions being re-arrested for breaking parole conditions, violence related to gangs funded by drugs, etc.

I failed to understand what the radical new theory was, other than debunking the war-on-drugs story.

It's easy to miss the link to page 2, where there's a theory about DAs trying to get re-elected.

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