From the PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-Review:
…State taxpayers spent $49 million housing inmates beyond the minimum release dates of sentences for misdemeanors and minor felonies committed in 2010, said the review by The Council of State Government’s Justice Center. The researchers are scheduled to present policy recommendations today to a state committee considering changes to the prison system.
“The whole package will include a substantial amount of money that can be saved, and at the same time, we can improve the system,” said Tony Fabelo, the center’s research director…
The state’s prison population climbed from 7,000 to 51,645 since 1980, in part because of mandatory-minimum sentences, longer prison terms and incarceration of less violent offenders, said Katrina Currie, a policy analyst for the Commonwealth Foundation…
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EDITOR: Much of the huge jump in incarcerations is due to the foolhardy War on Drugs. Many relatively benign drugs such as marijuana should be taxed, regulated and controlled as we do alcohol. Addiction should be treated as a health, not a criminal justice, matter.
