“The presumption here is, ‘If we crank up the sanctions, we'll scare the drug dealers off the street,’ “says Alfred Blumstein, dean of the School of Urban and Public Affairs at Carnegie-Mellon University. To assure that there will be enough prison cells to house the mounting numbers of new felons entering federal prisons, Bush has proposed $1.5 billion in new prison construction, almost doubling the capacity of the overcrowded federal system.Ĭriminal justice experts, however, are skeptical that Bush's emphasis on arrest and imprisonment will have much effect on drug crime. As he did in his speech last May outlining his administration's crime-prevention plan, the president stressed certainty of punishment and adequate prison cells as the keys to fighting crime. 5 in his first major television address, that he would help make America's neighborhoods safe from drug criminals. And once you're convicted, you will do time.” With that tough, straightforward formula, President Bush vowed Sept. And when you're caught, you will be prosecuted.
After all, despite this decade's apparent crackdown, crime still seems to be out of control.
But the cost is enormous, and many criminologists say putting more people in jail may not be a very effective way to fight crime. The nation's prisons are filled beyond capacity, and pressures are mounting to build more. There are twice as many people in prison today as there were in 1980.
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