Interesting. As a Fordem U. professor, I can appreciate his Southern perspective on state and and local criminal justice. His comments are on target about criminal justice statistical analysis... that state numbers are more complete and reliable among northern and western states. He may be right about DA's becoming more punitive even as the crime rate dropped significantly after the mid 1990's.

Professor Platt could have added that in many medium and small towns and most rural areas local and county jails. and state prisons were expanded during the Reagan era buildup of incarcerated populations. When the crime rates declined counties and states worried about having too few butts in their beds. Tough on crime DA's were seen as "good guys" who helped governments maintain jail and prison staff and pay off building mortgages.