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California is Leading the Way...Again

By Michael Blankenship

BLANCASTER, Calif. ? The California budget crisis has forced the state to address a problem that expert panels and judges have wrangled over for decades: how to reduce prison overcrowding. The state has begun in recent weeks the most significant changes since the 1970s to reduce overcrowding ? and chip away at an astonishing 70 percent recidivism rate, the highest in the country ? as the prison population becomes a major drag on the state?s crippled finances. Many in the state still advocate a tough approach, with long sentences served in full, and some early problems with released inmates have given critics reason to complain. But fiscal reality, coupled with a court-ordered reduction in the prison population, is pouring cold water on old solutions like building more prisons...continue to full post

Full post as published by The Justice Gambit on March 24, 2010 (boomark / email).