Competing demands for limited resources inevitably call for reduced expenditures on prisons. Capping prison populations for reasons other than sound sentencing policy can have grave, even fatal, consequences for innocent people. University of Chicago economist Steven Levitt studied the impact of artificial caps on the crime rate. Behind these dry statistics lies a staggering toll in human suffering. Innocent people are needlessly murdered, raped, and maimed when the state is unnecessarily prevented from incarcerating dangerous criminals.
Some limits are, of course, necessary.
The Constitution, and specifically the Eighth Amendment, must be obeyed. The present case is about the authority of Congress to drive up the cost of operating state correctional systems by mandating costs which the Eighth Amendment does not require. The question remains whether this accidental threat to public safety is constitutional. In the real world of limited resources, more expensive prisons inevitably mean less use of imprisonment, blunting the effectiveness of a measure that has already reduced crime substantially and promises to do more in the future. Such a result is contrary to the interests of victims of crime and the law-abiding public, which CJLF was formed to protect.