NPR: Examining Joe Biden's Record on Race: 1994 Crime Bill Sponsorship
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INSKEEP: Researcher Inimai Chettiar says lawmakers pushed to create new federal crimes and stricter penalties for existing crimes.
CHETTIAR: The second thing that the crime bill did, which was actually more harmful, was provide about $9 billion to states to build more prisons.
INSKEEP: Did this bill seem to make sense at the time?
CHETTIAR: I would say a majority of Americans, majority of politicians, thought this was the right direction.
INSKEEP: Afterward, the prison population, already high, kept growing. It peaked at 1.6 million people in 2008. But Biden argued that much of the legislation worked.
Did he call it the Biden crime bill?
CHETTIAR: He did, yes. He did call it the Biden crime bill.
INSKEEP: Did crime fall after the bill was passed?
CHETTIAR: Crime did fall. What we now know is that it was not due to increased incarceration. So that's a little bit of a counterintuitive point.
INSKEEP: Chettiar's advocacy group pushes to reduce the prison population. She says her research links the drop in crime to economic growth, demographic change and better policing. Imprisonment pushed people in the other direction.
CHETTIAR: Putting someone in prison who does not need to be there can oftentimes increase that person's likelihood of committing another crime upon release. We don't do a very good job at all of helping people get back on their feet.
INSKEEP: How disproportionately Black has that prison population been?
CHETTIAR: About 1 in 4 Black men can expect to spend some period of their life behind bars.