" All of these changes to our jail systems have occurred during...

" All of these changes to our jail systems have occurred during a time when the rates of reported crime are falling markedly around the country, and therefore the question must be asked: what is the justification for the increasing use of imprisonment when the need for prisons seems to reducing? That is a nice little conundrum that could be appropriately addressed by a graduate class of criminology students, even though I am a little doubtful about whether they would produce useful explanations"

Maybe the rates of reported crime are falling BECAUSE we are putting more criminals in prison? Perhaps? Just maybe?

Wow, what a conundrum, and I'm not even a criminology student!