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"Cash-strapped states revise laws to get inmates out"

By Douglas A. Berman

The title of this post is the headline of this effective article from today's Los Angeles Times.  Here is how it gets started: After decades of pursuing lock-'em-up policies, states are scrambling to reduce their prison populations in the face of tight budgets, making fundamental changes to their criminal justice systems as they try to save money.  Some states are revising mandatory-sentencing laws that locked up nonviolent offenders; others are recalculating the way prison time is counted. California, with the nation's second-largest prison system, is considering perhaps the most dramatic proposal -- releasing 40,000 inmates to save money and comply with a court ruling that found the state's prisons overcrowded. Colorado will accelerate parole for nearly one-sixth of its prison population...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on September 05, 2009 (boomark / email).