Prison Rates are Down. Thanks to Lead, They're Going to Stay Down.

Yesterday the Bureau of Justice Statistics released the latest numbers on incarceration rates, and the headline news is that we're sending fewer people to prison. But there's an interesting wrinkle in the numbers that few news outlets have picked up on, even though it's a trend that's been obvious in the numbers for a long time. Here it is: That's from Rick Nevin, and you know what's coming next, don't you? Lead. It explains a lot of what's going on here. The US started phasing out gasoline lead...