Hurricane Katrina Stopped Rising Crime

Since Katrina struck the southern coastline of the USA, both the prison population and crime rate have dropped in the state of Louisiana and Prof. Austin expects this trend to continue into the future.

“The prison population in Louisiana was 37,500 just before Katrina hit, now it’s 35,000 and what’s even more interesting is that it was projected to be about 38/39,000 so if you really figure in those terms we’ve seen a 4,000 drop in what it used to be. And further declines are going to happen now because of the budget problems the state’s going to reduce the prison population even more in the next coming year.”

“What happened with Katrina is that the courts stopped sending people to prison plus there is a large group of people who are on probation and parole who in essence became absconders, when they evacuated they lost track of them and they have not been found since… people have relocated and the question is now going to be how do they assimilate within the new population? Are they going to be involved in activities that will get them arrested? Or are they going to be able to avoid that and become good citizens?”

I suppose only time will tell, but the argument for the slow down on crime in Louisiana, seems to accurate. If you dismantle the Justice System then no criminals will be sentenced and incarcerated until things get back on track and the infrastructure of the city has been restored. See full story!