This campaign cycle has featured a number of polls showing how many Americans are deeply convinced that social trends are going the opposite of the way they really are (e.g., the stock market is down in the past 8 years, unemployment is way up). This cycle has featured commentary that the rate of African-American incarceration keeps going up due to Bill Clinton’s terrible 1994 anti-crime bill…yet as you can see from the chart, the rate of Black incarceration is at a more than 20 year low.

To learn more, check out my latest piece at Washington Post’s Wonkblog.