Measuring the human cost of the tough-on-crime policies of the 1980s and 90s has never been a simple task.
Researchers have tried to show the impact by measuring how long prisoners spent behind bars before they were released. They found that time served has increased over the past decades. But that approach skips a whole group: People whose incarceration has been going on so long they have yet to get out.
Now, a new study by the Urban Institute is trying something different. The nonprofit counted how long people currently in prison — many of whom still have long sentences to serve — have been there. Examining data from 43 states and Washington, D.C., the organization’s Justice Policy Center found that the average number of years in prison for the incarcerated has grown considerably in recent decades.
[For more of this story, written by Manuel Villa, go to https://www.themarshallproject...prisoners#.oaOvX3dMO]
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