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The Politics of Crime Control

By Michael Blankenship

After an impassioned debate over the cost and benefit of California's massive prison system, the state Senate on Thursday narrowly approved a controversial bill to cut hundreds of millions of dollars in spending on state lockups by reducing the time lower-level inmates would spend behind bars and on parole.But the proposal remained stalled in the Assembly, where a host of lawmakers vying for higher office refused to take a vote that could portray them as soft on crime. Speaker Karen Bass kept her members late into the night in an effort to push through a watered-down version, to no avail. The Assembly adjourned just before midnight without taking action, planning to reconvene Monday.Read more...We see the first problem in managing a failed prison system - politics - in this story from California...continue to full post

Full post as published by The Justice Gambit on August 21, 2009 (boomark / email).