Although you wouldn't know it by looking at the rising Bureau of Prisons (BOP) population levels, the rate that Americans incarcerate their fellow citizens appears to be declining at the state level.
The states' fiscal crisis have definitely put a damper on enthusiasm to build more prisons and lock up more people. The "soft-on-crime" cudgel used to club prison-reform minded politicians into submission appears to have lost some of its sting. Members of both parties, including usually reliable tough-on-crime
spokesmen, are starting to speak out against high incarceration rates. Even the head of the U.S. Sentencing Commission has criticized the length of sentences.
One need only look at the administrative deficiencies of the BOP, especially in the "rehabilitation" department to realize that crime only pays for corrections employees and private prison contractors, and the corrections system on all levels is riddled with corruption that deserves close examination.
