Interesting article by @slatestarcodex on crime, recidivism, and how a real three strikes law would eliminate 80% of crime in the US but concludes it isn't a good idea / practical for various reasons including it would probably require imprisoning 4% of the population, up from about 0.75%, which would cost too much. However: 1. What about Singapore? Perhaps death penalty + caning has massive deterrence effect? Do that and the 4% number maybe goes down to no increase. 2. On El Salvador - "When you’re starting from someplace terrible, without any of the low-hanging fruit picked, it’s easy to make progress!" The US + Europe are currently someplace terrible with regard to a lot of crime, including violent crime such as murder and rape, so there is low-hanging fruit even if it isn't a real three strikes law. Three obvious problems are releasing violent illegals, not prosecuting + locking up rapists + murderers for dei reasons, and the absurd California pre-trial detention 2X credit responsible for Grandpa Vicha's killer Antoine Watson getting out at least 5 years early (how many more examples are there like this across the US?). https://www\.astralcodexten.com/p/prison-and-crime-much-more-than-you