Adam Liptak has this article in the New York Times today on the controversy over incarceration rates and how ours is so much higher than Europe's. The article begins with the usual stuff we hear all the time. Later, it quotes Paul Cassell and an article of ours for the proposition that locking up criminals really has saved a lot of people from victimization. The articles cites "specialists" for "dismiss[ing] race as an important distinguishing factor." That is significant, and unusual, as for some folks race seems to be the explanation of first resort on every conceivable subject.

One point I would have liked to see expanded on is this: "From 1981 to 1996, according to Justice Department statistics, the risk of punishment rose in the United States and fell in England. The crime rates predictably moved in the opposite directions, falling in the United States and rising in England."

As noted on this blog Monday, the comparative data are more dramatic than that. Liptak notes elsewhere in the article that the United States has (present tense) lower burglary and robbery rates than England, but omits the fact that this is a fairly recent development. Americans have gone from a much greater risk of these crimes, compared to England and France, to a significantly lower risk. The tougher sentencing has been a big part of that.