That view transformed the justice system from a tolerably efficient enforcement mechanism into a bewildering array of criminal privileges, exclusionary rules, reversals, and delays that made it increasingly expensive to arrest, prosecute, and punish the guilty. The chance of imprisonment for committing a serious crime nearly collapsed, plunging from 3.6 per 100 serious crimes in 1960 to only 1.3 per 100 in 1970. The system became a joke . . . Progress has been made in the 1990s in restoring the credibility of the criminal justice system. The number of prisoners doubled over the last decade and now approaches 2 million inmates in jails and prisons across the land.
Crooks know the party's over.
Since 1994 Congress has slowed government's growth, and thereby helped the economy to expand, and unemployment to fall. Now many states have enjoyed declines in caseloads of 40 percent and more. Lots of jobs help too. Recent research by economists at UCLA and James Madison University shows that a tight labor market reduces crime. In fact, a 10 percent increase in unskilled market wages seems to reduce crime by as much as 6 percent.