Crime and Time

On September 2, 2016, the New York Times published an article by Josh Keller and Adam Pearce with the title: "This small Indiana County sends more people to prison than San Francisco and Durham, N.C., combined. Why?" The article began with a statistical documentation of the decline in prison admissions from 2006 to 2014 across many cities in the U.S. Yet despite this national decline the "small Indiana county" sent convicted offenders to prison at exceeded national trends. The preferred "explanation" for this odd statistic seemed to focus on the fact that the county was composed of citizens who were white, rural, and politically conservative. Since these maligned citizens were not involved in sentencing offenders, attention and criticism turned to the power of local prosecutors who were presumably elected by the citizens who were white, rural, and politically conservative.

Apparently preferring the "hick" explanation to this practice of sending convicted persons to prison, the article fails to examine the expansion of drug-related activity outside of the cities and into surrounding counties (that is, "rural areas"). Anyone who has studied the illegal drug business knows that you must treat it as a business, so the spread from cities to surrounding counties is evidence of the business practice of seeking new markets for the illegal drugs. Thus, when the "hicks" and their "out of control" prosecutors send drug offenders to prison, they are sending a message to the urban drug entrepreneurs that their business is not welcome in the county. It's like saying "no" to Wal-Mart because you prefer the local mom-and-pop stores.

We encourage you to read the article and see what you think may be responsible for this hard line version of "if you do the crime, you do the time."