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Fiscal Cost Forcasting for Criminal Sentencing

By Real Cost of Prisons Project (The Sentencing Project)

Sentencing laws needn?t drain us By Rachel E. Barkow and Joshua J. Libling | Saturday, December 6, 2008 Op-Ed Massachusetts, like most states around the country, is in fiscal crisis. Gov. Deval Patrick announced more than $1 billion in midyear spending reductions last month. At the same time, the prison system is bursting at its seams: Almost 12,000 state prisoners are living in space built for fewer than 8,000, and the prison commissioner has announced that prisoners in maximum-security facilities may have to double-bunk. Studies show that putting inmates in such close quarters increases violence. But this policy is flawed for an even more fundamental reason: A patchwork solution like double-bunking fails to offer a long-term, fiscally responsible approach to criminal justice...continue to full post

Full post as published by The Real Cost of Prisons Weblog on December 06, 2008 (boomark / email).