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Showing Original Post only (View all)White House: America's prisons more costly than helpful [View all]
Prison has become a big business in the U.S. in recent years even as crime has decreased. But a new White House report states that mass incarceration is bad for the economy.
The report published by the White House Council of Economic Advisers this week argues that the state and federal prison system is costly and ineffective at deterring crime, even though the incarcerated population has grown 4.5 times larger since 1980. The U.S. imprisons 2.2 million people, which is the highest incarceration rate among all developed countries and four times the global average, according to the report.
The crime rate in the U.S. has dropped since the 1980s but the report argues that incarceration has likely been less effective than demographic changes, new policing tactics and improving economic conditions. Violent crime rates fell by 39 percent and property crime rates fell by 52 percent between 1980 and 2014, according to data from the FBI and federal crime reports.
The increase in mass incarceration amid the declining crime rate was likely fueled by changes in criminal justice policy that called for long sentences and higher conviction rates, according to the report. Drug related arrests, for instance, grew by over 90 percent between 1980 and 2014.
It costs the U.S. nearly $80 billion each year to house its prisoners, and the White House called for new approaches that could save money and reduce crime at the same time. The report cited nearly 30 studies and concludes that police and education do more to reduce crime than strict sentences. Increasing spending on police forces by $10 billion annually, for example, could reduce crime by up to 16 percent, equivalent to 1.5 million crimes per year, the report suggests.
http://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/white-house-americas-prisons-more-costly-than-helpful/ar-BBsoljs?li=BBnbfcN&ocid=edgsp