According to CNN the FBI reports that crime rates are increasing for the first time in a decade, with the sharpest increases in midwestern cities.

Hmm. I look forward to the release of this info in October, it might be an interesting read, because it shows a continuing decrease in murders in the large bluer cities, even Detroit, with some redistributions of crime. They also cite what will soon be a major problem.

Some experts have cited an aging population and stiffer sentencing as key factors which contributed to the gradual reductions in crime throughout the '90s and into the start of the new century.

But several leading criminologists say those factors are changing, and that they're not surprised by the new numbers.

"There is an 'echo boom', with an increasing number of late adolescents, particularly blacks and Latinos," said criminal justice expert James Fox of Northeastern University.

"Also, more people incarcerated in the '80s are now being released to their neighborhoods, and some are back to their old ways and old gangs," Fox said.

The statistics for cities of 100,000 or more show the largest increase in overall violent crime occurred in the Midwest, where the total of murders, robberies, rapes, and aggravated assaults increased by 5.7 percent last year.

Think about this problem. If increased incarceration just buys you a 20-year lag in crime, which eventually reasserts itself because the prison system is defective and abusive and doesn't rehabilitate, then won't we be up shit creek again in about a decade? Or, maybe I should ask, won't these states really be up shit creek again?