Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Criminal Law Blogs -> Sentencing Law and Policy

Criminal Law

: Sentencing Law and Policy

"Prisons and Budgets"

By Douglas A. Berman

The title of this post is the headline of this effective editorial that appeared in yesterday's New York Times.  Here are excerpts: The United States, which has less than 5 percent of the world?s population, has about one-quarter of its prisoners. But the relentless rise in the nation?s prison population has suddenly slowed as many states discover that it is simply too expensive to overincarcerate. Between 1987 and 2007 the prison population nearly tripled, from 585,000 to almost 1.6 million. Much of that increase occurred in states ? many with falling crime rates ? that had adopted overly harsh punishment policies, such as the ?three strikes and you?re out? rule and drug laws requiring that nonviolent drug offenders be locked away. These policies have been hugely costly...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on January 05, 2010 (boomark / email).