This statistical study analyzes prison statistics, unemployment figures, statistics of recorded crime, and demographic variables during two economic recessions (1920-1938 and 1982-1985). The direct link between high unemployment and rising crime that is so commonly assumed was not found in either recession. Instead the results showed a direct influence of the labor market on the size of the prison population. Rising unemployment figures correlated with a growth in the number of inmates, although the number of recorded offenses did not rise correspondingly. To explain this phenomenon, the study argues that economic hardship increases the traditional target population of the criminal justice system: a marginal, economically insecure group of people who are the first to lose their jobs. At the same time, the criminal justice system tends to become less tolerant during recessions and chooses preventive detention and prison sentences over alternatives to prisonization. An annotated bibliography and detailed statistical charts and graphs are appended.