Did Getting Tough on Crime Pay?

Since the early 1980s, sentencing reform has been dominated by the use of mandatory penalties, determinate sentences, and guideline-based sentences. Of the reforms, mandatory prison sentences have been the most popular. These have been aimed primarily at persons who commit violent crimes, who use weapons in the commission of their crimes, who are repeat or habitual offenders, or who are high-profile drug traffickers. These reforms were based on three beliefs: First, that punishments for serious crimes needed to be in-creased, as they were far too lenient; second, that the criminals targeted by the reforms were "dangerous" people who must be incarcerated because lesser sanctions would not be effective in curtailing the proscribed behaviors; and third, that mandatory prison sentences would reduce crime by incapacitating or deterring the dangerous offenders who were targets of the reform. With the implementation of the reforms, there was unprecedented growth in the size of federal and state prison populations. Between 1980 and 1995, prison populations grew from about 330,000 persons to over 1.5 million persons, including those incarcerated in jails.