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: The Real Cost of Prisons Weblog

Baltimore jails more of its citizens than nearly any other city- but putting people committing low risk crimes in jail makes the city less safe

By Real Cost of Prisons Project (The Sentencing Project)

Incarceration city Our view: Baltimore jails more of its citizens than nearly any other American city, but most serious crimes are committed by a relative handful of violent career offenders June 15, 2010 Baltimore arrests and jails more of its citizens than nearly any other American city, but does putting so many people behind bars really make us safer? Not according to a recent report suggesting that there's at best only a only a tenuous relationship between crime rates and how many people police and prosecutors send to the slammer. It's possible, the authors say, to significantly reduce the inmate population in city jails without increasing the risk to public safety. The report by the Justice Policy Institute, a Washington-based group that advocates for alternatives to incarceration, says the city's jails are full of low-risk, nonviolent offenders who could be better dealt with through treatment programs and supervised probation at far less cost to the city and state...continue to full post

Full post as published by The Real Cost of Prisons Weblog on June 18, 2010 (boomark / email).