New ideas may be key to end of lock-them-up era / Chicago Sun-Times, 15 Nov 2006

http://digbig.com/4pges
"Violent crime in Chicago and the suburbs has been dropping for more than a decade, and so has the fear of crime. The costs of the criminal justice system in that same time period, however, have skyrocketed. For researchers at Chicago Metropolis 2020, a business-based public policy group, that intersection of crime, incarceration rates and the public mood presents a opportunity to assess our crime policies. Is there a way, it asks, to keep crime down while bringing costs under control?"
2006 Crime and Justice Index
PDF - http://digbig.com/4pget
Detailed list of sources of data in the 2006 Crime and Justice Index,
PDF - http://www.chicagometropolis2020.org/documents/CJISources.pdf
For more information on the Justice and Violence Program
http://www.chicagometropolis2020.org/10_25.htm