INQUIRER: Some prison reform advocates have long said that meaningful change would come only when conservative policymakers made it happen. The driving force, they predicted, would be money.
It seems the current economic downturn has indeed caused many such policymakers to take a second look at corrections spending. In Indiana, for instance, Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels is pushing a reform package that would give judges more flexibility to determine the length of sentences, provide drug addicts with treatment, and encourage communities to deal with low-level offenders locally instead of sending them to state prisons.
Facing a budget deficit of about $4 billion, many Pennsylvania lawmakers are concerned about the cost of the state prison system. The Department of Corrections’ operating budget is almost $2 billion, and that does not include another $800 million in the capital budget for the construction of four new prisons. And Pennsylvania could save tens of millions of dollars immediately by bringing its prisoners back from rented cells in Michigan and Virginia… (more)
