Except that crime rates dropped the same way in just about every other western country without harsher sentencing, and without locking up large sections of the population.
Update: Thanks "lostlogin", fixed.
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Not sure of your definition of western, but leave New Zealand out of it, 2nd highest incarceration rate in the world, and growing.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Department_of_Corrections_(New_...
Second highest in the world? NZ is 190/100k, a rate that puts it in 71st position: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_incarcerat...
Nice catch. I didn't read carefully enough. 'Western world' being a key phrase. I got my stat from this statement "New Zealand has the second highest rate of imprisonment in the Western world.[12]" from here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Department_of_Corrections_(New_...
Even so, mpwieher's comment still stands to some degree. At a rate of 190, NZ is still around the same level as other Western countries which range from 70 to 150ish. It's nowhere near the proportion of people imprisoned by the US at 730. That's a pretty big dropoff between first and second place.
Not by the same amount, though.
They didn't have the chance to drop by the same amount, because they were much lower to begin with. And are still much lower. But drop they did.
So what's the evidence again for higher incarceration rates and stiffer sentencing leading to lower crime?