incarceration unsustainable?

[Doug Henwood]

I'm curious about the claim that incarceration rates are slowing. The
latest Bureau of Justice Statistics numbers, which admittedly go only
through the end of 1997, show no such slowdown. If there has been a
slowdown, it's only happened in the last 14 months. What's the evidence?
With mandatory minimums and three strikes laws (two strikes in some states,
no?), it's going to take a lot to reverse the jail juggernaut.

Our dear Gov Pataki, after having made some noises a few years ago about
repealing the insanely stringent Rockefeller drug laws, has now
reconsidered his reconsideration and is back on the lock 'em up bandwagon.

Doug