There is some correlations that get ignored in America that I have seen noted even in some conservative corners.

1. better education correlates with reduced drug use and reduced crime, and conversely lower education correlates with increased drug use and crime

2. poverty correlates with high drug use and high crime, and reduced poverty correlates with reduced drug use and reduced crime.

These are not hard facts. They are correlations. There are many other factors involved. But these are real correlations that are ignored by our society's way of dealing with crime.

One thing that does not correlate well are increased incarceration rates with reduced crime or drug use.

I am not an expert on criminal behavior nor what is and is not effective in dealing with existing criminals. I can't say with any confidence how we can improve the system we have when dealing with existing criminals.

But I do know that incarceration does not seem to improve things overall, but education and reduction of poverty do. So it seems blatantly obvious to me that we need a shift of resources from incarceration to education and reduction of poverty. I have known people who come from towns where it is said everyone's life centers on the local prison: everyone either becomes a guard or an inmate. Now one person who said this to me about his home town can't be 100% right because I have loaned money to a successful business in his town that has nothing to do with the local prison. But the point is most kids in his town do wind up on one side of the bars or another in the prison. Yikes!

One other correlation I have heard cited that I haven't looked into as much is the correlation between beat cops (cops on the street daily interacting with the community) and reduced crime. This is in contrast with patrol cops who watch but aren't as interactive. The former are more effective it seems but can't cover as much ground. The latter are less effective but can reach a wider network of donut shops (sorry...couldn't resist...reminds me of a couple of true stories about cops and donut shops, but that is too much of a digression!).

Beat cops, education and reduction of poverty. Sounds easy and they are proven to work as far as I can tell. Finding the political will to implement them in a society that is dominated by reactionary memes that favor punishment over protection, surveillance over interaction and blame over solutions is hard.