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"Shrinking State Budgets May Spring Some Inmates"

By Douglas A. Berman

The title of this post is the title of this piece from NPR's "Morning Edition."  Here is an excerpt: This month, Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear signed a law sending hundreds of drug offenders to treatment instead of prison. It's expected to save the state millions. Kansas, Montana and Pennsylvania are now doing the same. Other states are facing more drastic measures. California, South Carolina and Utah are considering letting thousands of inmates out early. "This is a big bill that's coming due from a lot of overheated rhetoric from the '80s and '90s," said Adam Gelb, who studies prison costs for the Pew Center on the States. Gelb says prisons now house too many nonviolent property and drug offenders that never would have been sent to long prison terms in the past...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on March 31, 2009 (boomark / email).