Crime & Punishment, 1926-92

'Crime and Punishment' is to be made of 66 3/4" layers of walnut, each layer representing one year. The vertical dimension of each ovoid layer is determined by the incarceration rate per 1,000,000 in the U.S. for all crimes. The horizontal dimension is set by the average annual homicide rate per 1,000,000 of population.
The federal and state incarceration rates have expanded rapidly from 1980 (the area of the sculpture closest to the wall). There are, shockingly, more prisoners per capita in the US now than in the USSR during the gulag or South Africa during apartheid. Here's the question: Do you feel safer?
The shape of the piece seems appropriate to the subject.
A series dedicated to crime seems inevitable.