evidence: A paper released today, Better by Half: The New York City Story of Winning Large-Scale Decarceration while Increasing Public Safety, suggests that quite the opposite is true. New York City’s rapid and well-publicized crime rate decline was coupled with a sustained and dramatic reduction in incarceration, allowing the state to close more than a dozen prisons and save tens of millions of dollars. New York City is now not only the safest big city in the United States, but also one of its least incarcerated. [...] "Not only does the New York story show that substantial reductions in incarceration are realistic and attainable, but also that safety can be improved at the same time," said Schiraldi. "While prison and jail populations grew across the nation and even within the state of New York, New York City actually made an about-face on incarceration and crime. Cities can actually be safer with substantial decreases in incarceration, and states should follow the lead of this remarkable reform." [...] "Based on the accomplishments in states with the largest decreases in incarceration, we know that a successful decarceration recipe includes bold reform agendas, organizational moxie, and powerful public engagement," said Greene. "New York’s unprecedented reduction in reliance on incarceration has been a ‘bottom-up,’ advocacy-driven, community-focused strategy. When these ingredients include robust and sustained advocacy, we see that it is possible and realistic to reduce reliance on incarceration by half."