Michigan’s incarcerated population increased more than 400 percent in the 35 years between 1974 and 2009 and has only begun decreasing recently due to the poor economy. However Michigan’s population only increased by a meager nine percent in that time. But the crime rate must have at least risen in this time, nope – Michigan’s violent crime rate per 100,000 people fell by more than 24 percent in that time. This change can been seen across the entire United States – an increase in incarcerated population accompanied by a stagnant or falling crime rate – the United States population increased by 30 percent in this time while the incarcerated population increased by about 400 percent and the violent crime rate fell by over 5 percent..

So what’s going on? Why has the national incarcerated population grown more than 10 times as fast as the rest of the country’s population while the violent crime rate has actually been falling? Why is the United States’ incarceration rate – 730 per 100,000 people – more than triple Japan’s, Germany’s and France’s (three of the five largest world economies) combined? There are many reasons, but one is the length of prison sentences. The minimum sentence for a drug offense in federal court is five or 10 years, while in most other developed countries the typical maximum sentence is only six months. Meanwhile, 24 states have three strikes laws meaning that the minimum sentence for someone who has committed three or more felonies – a group of crime which includes illegal graffiti, copyright infringement, and check fraud – is 25 years to life. Even though the U.S. incarcerates less people than some countries the length of the sentences still makes our incarceration rate higher.

Another reason is the War on Drugs which Nixon started and Reagan began pursuing in the early ‘80s, naturally this caused an increase in incarceration for drug offenses. From 1981 to 2010 the incarcerated population of drug offenders by 1,150 percent, from 40,000 to a half million. This accounted for two thirds of the increase of the federal prison population between 1985 and 2010.

So what have these harsh sentencing laws accomplished? As for the three strikes laws, the intentional homicide rate in the U.S. is more than double that of the aforementioned countries not to mention the fact the U.S. is one of the only developed countries that still utilizes capital punishment. As for the war on drugs, roughly 40 percent of high school seniors admitted to taking some illegal drug in the last year up from 30 percent in the early ‘90s. Thus perhaps the carrot (treating drug abusers) is superior to the stick (putting them in jail) in this case.