Prisons are not simply buildings that keep people who’ve committed crimes away from the rest of the world. They’re institutions that oftentimes make our problems worse.
But people are fighting back against the construction of new prisons and jails around the nation… because we’ve all been deceived.
Mass incarceration doesn’t decrease crime.
Research from the Vera Institute states that “between 75 and 100 percent of the reduction in crime rates since the 1990s is explained by other factors,” resources like increased wages, increased employment, and aging populations.
Facts expose the prison trick at play. For example, when Queensgate Correctional Facility in Cincinnati was closed in 2008, people expected crime to skyrocket.
What really happened when this facility, which holds a third of the city’s jail population, closed? Violent crime DROPPED by 38.5 percent between 2008 and 2014.
The U.S. is spending tens of billions more today to achieve the same amount of public safety it was achieving in the 1970s for a FRACTION of the price.
Since prisons are a business, many states want to keep them open and build new ones to create jobs. Crime is often just a scare tactic to keep this business going!
People have been fighting the construction of new jails and prisons in places like New York. Why? The truth is out!
Research and data provides us with more than enough evidence that crime can be deterred with resources for our communities - not with cages.