How could the trend of mass imprisonment in the late twentieth century have been avoided?

 

United States incarceration rates in state and federal prisons remained remarkably stable throughout the better part of the twentieth century, averaging just over 108 people per 100,000 from 1925 to 1973. But in 1980 the rate of US imprisonment increased by over 40 percent, from 97 per 100,000 people in 1970 to 139 per 100,000 people—the first increase of this magnitude in American history. Between 1980 and the mid-2000s, the incarceration rate nearly quadrupled, reaching an all-time high of 506 per 100,000 people by 2007, amounting to a total of 1,596,835 state and federal prisoners. If one includes the estimated 780,174 people incarcerated in local jails that year, by 2007 a total of 2,377,009 people were living behind bars in the United States, or approximately 1 in 100 US adults. The trend of mass imprisonment in the late 20th century could have been avoided if the State legislators could have refused to criminalize drug use.