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Texas praised for prison pop reduction efforts

Texas' efforts to reduce prison population growth through drug diversion programs and probation reforms were highlighted in a Washington Post feature yesterday titled, "States seek less costly substitutes for prison" (July 13). According to reporter Keith Richburg:what is striking, experts say, is how some states with reputations for being tough on crime are most rapidly embracing these policies, which might have once been dismissed as the product of liberal think tanks and soft-on-crime leniency. Texas is a case in point. From 1978 to 2004, the inmate population rose 573 percent and the state's population increased 67 percent. [Ed. note: I wonder where that data came from?] With hard sentencing laws and some conservative judges, Texas built a "lock 'em up" reputation...continue to full post

Full post as published by Grits for Breakfast on July 14, 2009 (boomark / email).