Quote Originally Posted by Thorne View Post
And they absolutely do not like it! And the rate of recidivism is the lowest in the country! People DO NOT want to wind up back in HIS jail!
Again. I doubt there's any connection. People don't commit any crimes if they think they'd get caught or convicted. The state of the prisons is irrelevant. I had a period a few years ago when I was very interested in this subject and read any research on it I could find. Now, when I'm not a student any more I don't have access to the research databases for references. Crime is the result of a very complex set of issues. If Arizona has low recidivism it must be based on their programmes where ex-cons find alternative ways to support themselves once they're out, or they simply leave the state and make it somebody else's problem.

Being hard on crime is a traditional right wing, (conservative in USA) issue. Those political parties want to give the impression of being unflinching do'ers rather than having endless debates about what to do. But their "solutions" are only based on what makes the voters feel safe. They're never based on anything that actually works. Again, this I'm sure is because crime is the symptom of a large group of problems which solutions are either too expensive and/or won't fit as a campaign slogans. Instead they do stuff like that sheriff in Arizona. It's pure emotion. It feels good for the voter, but is utterly worthless as far as preventing crime is concerned.

We have the exact same dynamic in our political system in Sweden. Neither side is talking reality, because it's too complex to have a TV debate about. It always gets reduced to mythical abstractions and moral vagueries.

Crime is a very complicated issue with no simple solution. The only really effective way to stop crime is to prevent it from happening in the first place. Once it's done it's only down to harm reduction for everybody involved.