The US has a large prison population. Is this because we are imprisoning too many people, or because too many people are committing crimes?

Here is a clue. What happens when prisoners are released, especially when they are released early, as we are doing now? The Bureau of Justice Statistics has the answer. Within 9 years of release:

• 401,288 released prisoners were rearrested 1,994,000 times.
• That is an average of 5 arrests for each released prisoner.
• This does not count the crimes the released prisoners committed but were not arrested for.
• After 9 years 83% of those released were rearrested.

Remember that murderers and other violent criminals were less likely to be released. When they are released, as is happening now, we can expect even more – and worse – repeat offenses.