Prison growth began when crime rates were already falling

Evidence

Mass imprisonment generates profits as it devours social wealth, and thus it tends to reproduce the very conditions that lead people to prison. There are thus real and often quite complicated connections between the deindustrialization of the economy—a process that reached its peak during the 1980s—and the rise of mass imprisonment, which also began to spiral during the Reagan-Bush era. However, the demand for more prisons was represented to the public in simplistic terms. More prisons were needed because there was more crime. Yet many scholars have demonstrated that by the time the prison construction boom began, official crime statistics were already falling. Moreover, draconian drug laws were being enacted, and “three-strikes” provisions were on the agendas of many states. — Davis, Angela Y, Are Prisons Obsolete, 34

Categorization

• XREF: The falling-crime-during-boom fact contradicts the ‘more crime needs more prison’ public narrative, a classic ideological-false-consciousness demonstration. — connects to: Prisons proliferated while crime rates were falling due to corporate profit; Mass incarceration did not lower crime but bred more prisons; Prison expansion correlates with falling crime, exposing profit and racism as drivers — Davis, Angela Y, Are Prisons Obsolete, 227 (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• Prisons proliferated while crime rates were falling due to corporate profit #expands (0.80)
• Prison expansion correlates with falling crime, exposing profit and racism as drivers #expands (0.75) — Davis, Angela Y, Are Prisons Obsolete, 227
• Mass incarceration did not lower crime but bred more prisons #qualifies (0.70)
• Racism and profit, not crime, drive prison expansion #expands (0.70)