The discussion notes that national victimization surveys indicate that the crime rate in the United States is lower in 1995 than it was 20 years ago. Nevertheless, political leaders demand nationwide prison construction as a response to the war on drugs and to accommodate the results of the new three-strikes law. At the same time, the income disparity between rich and poor is greater than ever before, and social and political policies have ignored the needs of law-abiding poor people and resulted in unprecedented homelessness. The analysis concludes that increasing the number of persons living in poverty will almost certainly increase the crime rate and that increasing the number of inmates will have almost no effect on crime. In addition, continuation of the current trends will lead to civil disorders, resulting in the end of the war on drugs and the incarceration of hundreds of thousands of participants in the civil turmoil. Chapter notes, index, and approximately 200 references