parole, indeterminate sentencing, and probation, were introduced. These soon became mainstream practices in America. At this time there was an increase in crime causing officials to handle crime in a more retributive way. Many Sicilian Americans were harshly affected by this. But, as the crime rate declined, they started to focus more on rehabilitation. On June 18, 1971, president Richard Nixon declared drug abuse "public enemy number one" in a message to congress. His message also called for federal resources to be used for the "prevention of new addicts, and the rehabilitation of those who are addicted". Following this, the media began using the term "War on Drugs". According to author Emily Dufton, Nixon "transformed the public image of the drug user into one of a dangerous and anarchic threat to American civilization." The presidency of Ronald Reagan saw the expansion of federal efforts of preventing drug abuse and prosecuting offenders. Reagan signed the Comprehensive Crime Control Act of 1984 established mandatory minimum sentences and expanded penalties for marijuana possession. He also signed the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986. Support for Reagan's crime legislation was bipartisan. The 1980s saw a dramatic rise of the prison population, especially with people convicted of drug offenses. Researcher Valerie Jenness writes, "Since the 1970s, the final wave of expansion of the prison system, there has been a huge expansion of prisons that exist at the federal and state level. Now, prisons are starting to become a private industry as more and more prisons are starting to become privatized rather than being under government control." Role of the media A substantial body of research claims that incarceration rates are primarily a function of media editorial policies, largely unrelated to the actual crime rate. Researchers say that the jump in incarceration rate from 0.1% to 0.5% of the United States population from 1975 to 2000 (documented in the figure above) was driven by changes in the editorial policies of the mainstream commercial media and is unrelated to any actual changes in crime. Media consolidation reduced competition on content. That allowed media company executives to maintain substantially the same audience while slashing budgets for investigative journalism and filling the space from the police blotter. It is safer, easier and cheaper to write about crimes committed by poor people than the wealthy. People with money can sue for defamation, an alternative that is largely unavailable to poor people.