Summarizing John Fawkes’ article:

Swiftness and certainty of punishment beats severity, the American system focuses on severity. No US court gives speedy trials (violating Model Time Standards).

average number of judges and prosecutors, one-third fewer police officers per capita, 2.5 times as many corrections officers per capita, and four times as many prisoners per capita

solve just over half of all homicides, one quarter of robberies, and one in nine burglaries, and just under a third of rapes

US money flows into prisons, not courts and police. Of GDP:

US spends .75% on police vs .5% on prisons, while the EU spends 1% on police vs .2% on prisons

Law enforcement is funded locally (10-15% of budgets come from state and federal grants), prisons on the state level. Courts are also local.

Law enforcement is a better solution, but it costs your money. Prison is an inferior solution, but it costs other people’s money.

A grand jury, made up of volunteers, mostly retirees, decide to indict defendants, required for federal felonies: https://slate.com/news-and-politics/1998/08/who-is-a-grand-jury.html#:~:text=As%20a%20result,%20grand%20jurors,the%20unemployed,%20or%20government%20employees.

In 1976, Ron DeLord made a Texan Police Union, then helped others increase bargaining power. It was in the 70s that police came to earn good wages, and local governments shifted money to prisons. He wrote: Police Association Power, Politics, and Confrontation: A Guide for the Successful Police Labor Leader

The author proposes:

State governments should provide matching funds to local police and county sheriffs department budgets, in order to make law enforcement cheaper for those governments. At the same time, state governments should charge some percentage of the cost of incarcerating offenders to the local or county jurisdiction which sentenced those offenders.