Violent crime, on the other hand, went down by 38.6 percent and the murder rate by 54.5 percent. During the same time, California s prison population grew by 30 percent while its violent crime rate went down a mere 23 percent, and the murder rate by 28 percent. America s prison population is not likely to go down anytime soon. Prisons today are big business. There is a financial incentive to incarcerate ever greater numbers of offenders too many people would stand to lose too much money if the prison gates swung open.
Prisons provide employment to a vast correctional staff.
In times of recession, when prison population tends to expand even faster than usual, they will soak up the unemployed. Plus, prisoners need to be fed, clothed, provided with plumbing and telephone services. A lot of companies livelihoods depend on the prison system. A 1998 article in The Atlantic described something called a Corrections Yellow Pages that lists more than a thousand vendors. Meanwhile corporations are busy constructing private prisons, which can be built faster than state prisons and are cheaper to operate.