Clinton’s greatest achievement for ordinary US citizens was the sustained and dramatic drop in crime associated with his 1996 reforms. Though crime had peaked in 1992, the criminological consensus was that citizens just had to get used to the levels they were then experiencing. Instead the drop steepened and went on year after year.

“In 1995, there were 684 violent crimes nationally per   

100,000 residents; in 2006, there were 473.”

 That his years also started something good for prisoners I did not know until now.

“One place has topped even those impressive figures, yet it has received   

little publicity and no credit. The location is U.S. prisons.    

Prison crime data are notoriously problematic, but statistics on some   

types of crime are more reliable than others:

   o   Between 1973 and 2003, the homicide rate in state prisons   

       declined a staggering 94 percent, dropping from 63 homicides   

       per 100,000 state inmates, to 8 in 1990 and 4 in 2003.

   o   Prison suicide rates also dropped sharply. In 1980, there   

       were 34 inmate suicides per 100,000 inmates; this rate   

       decreased to 16 suicides per 100,000 in 1990, and has remained   

       stable.

The best explanation of the decline in violent crime in prisons is   

improved leadership and management.  Prison wardens rejected the   

conventional wisdom that inmates could disrupt prison life at will. “