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Fiscal Pressures Lead Some States to Free Inmates Early

By Real Cost of Prisons Project (The Sentencing Project)

Fiscal Pressures Lead Some States to Free Inmates Early By Keith B. Richburg and Ashley Surdin Washington Post Staff Writers Monday, May 5, 2008; A01 NEW YORK -- Reversing decades of tough-on-crime policies, including mandatory minimum prison sentences for some drug offenders, many cash-strapped states are embracing a view once dismissed as dangerously naive: It costs far less to let some felons go free than to keep them locked up. It is a theory that has long been pushed by criminal justice advocates and liberal politicians -- that some felons, particularly those convicted of minor drug offenses, would be better served by treatment, parole or early release for good behavior. But the states' conversion to that view has less to do with a change of heart on crime than with stark fiscal realities...continue to full post

Full post as published by The Real Cost of Prisons Weblog on May 05, 2008 (boomark / email).