Rate of NYers in city jails dropped since 2001: Bloomberg

Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced Thursday that the city's incarceration rate had dropped 32% during his 11 years in office. The rate for the rest of the nation, by comparison, went up 5% during the same period.

"New York's crime rate has gone down more quickly and more steeply than the rest of the country and we are the model for low crime in this nation," Bloomberg said in a statement.

The mayor said the NYPD and his office targeted neighborhoods with high crime rates and launched initiatives that helped troubled kids stay out of crime.

He also noted that drug rehabilitation programs that judges offer as an alternative to prison help prevent people from becoming repeat offenders in the city.