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America’s incarceration rate is in decline

(www.theatlantic.com)
254 points paulpauper | 2 comments | 25 Jun 25 17:14 UTC | HN request time: 0.7s | source
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1vuio0pswjnm7 ◴[25 Jun 25 21:12 UTC] No.44381880[source]▶
The Atlantic suggests this results from the release of those convicted during a decades long crime wave, which apprently took place when many of us grew up. Perhaps it also tracks with a progressive decline in law enforcement. Whether that is because crime waves not longer exist or whether it is some other reason is a question for the reader. A substanbtial amount of crime is now done via internet. Few are ever convicted.
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saulpw ◴[25 Jun 25 21:42 UTC] No.44382077[source]▶
Marijuana possession was the number one crime and is now legal in a majority of states. This seems like the high-order bit.
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tptacek ◴[25 Jun 25 22:55 UTC] No.44382550[source]▶
At what point in the last 30 years did cannabis possession account for even a plurality of incarcerated persons, in any state or federally?

Cannabis is not the high order bit.

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1. BlackFly ◴[26 Jun 25 15:16 UTC] No.44388233[source]▶
Well apparently 43% of American inmates are incarcerated for drug related offenses. https://www.bop.gov/about/statistics/statistics_inmate_offen...

This article claims that about 32k people in 2021 were for cannabis related offense, and simply carrying that to today would be 23% of the prison population: the largest offense type. https://www.lastprisonerproject.org/cannabis-prisoner-scale

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2. tptacek ◴[26 Jun 25 18:53 UTC] No.44390216[source]▶
32,000 people is about 1% of all those incarcerated.