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Idaho joins states struggling with prison overcrowding

By Douglas A. Berman

As TalkLeft spotlights here, the Idaho legislature is looking to ease the application of its mandatory minimum drug sentencing laws.  Here are excerpts from this AP report:A bill that would give Idaho judges greater discretion to keep drug addicts out of prison even if they've been convicted of drug-dealing crimes will get a full hearing before the House Judiciary, Rules and Administration Committee. It's a modest effort to loosen Idaho's mandatory sentences for drug offenses and ease overcrowding in the state's prisons....Idaho now has 7,400 people behind bars. More than half of them are there due to drug-related offenses. The state has shipped about 500 people to other states because there's no more room in prisons in Idaho.  Under the bill, judges could opt for shorter, treatment-focused sentences for addicts convicted of drug-dealing crimes, on the presumption that if they get clean they're less likely to re-offend...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on February 12, 2008 (boomark / email).