![]() ![]() States and the federal government responded by enacting a series of laws that dramatically lengthened sentences for many crimes, and also created entirely new ones. By the late 1970s, people of color were crime victims at a rate 24% higher than white Americans. African American and Latino communities bore the brunt of this crime rise. From 1960 to 1980, violent crime soared 270%, peaking at 758 violent offenses per 100,000 people in 1991. “So I pledge to you, we shall have order in the United States.” To a large extent, what average Americans saw on their television screens squared with their own experiences. “Let us recognize that the first civil right of every American is to be free from domestic violence,” Nixon intoned. In 1968, Republican presidential candidate Richard Nixon ran a campaign commercial where a series of still photos of angry protesters and burning buildings appeared over a soundtrack of a snare drum and dissonant piano chords. ![]() There was a period in America where crime dominated the headlines. Our research-driven recommendations aim to help rethink sentencing to make our justice system better by decreasing crime and recidivism, reducing the disproportionate impact on communities of color, and preserving the hard-won declines in crime over the last 20 years. Republicans and Democrats agree that America’s experiment in mass incarceration has failed. Releasing these inmates would save $20 billion annually, enough to employ 270,000 new police officers, 360,000 probation officers, or 327,000 school teachers. ![]()
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