The Real Cost of Prisons Weblog

According to the Associated Press, Kentucky is implementing a temporary cost-cutting plan that has seen murderers and other violent offenders benefit.

Early-release programs are being considered in California, Virginia and New York to avoid budget shortfalls.

The AP stated, "Collectively, the pending and proposed initiatives could add up to one of (the) biggest shifts ever in corrections policy, putting into place cost-saving reforms that have struggled to win political support in the tough-on-crime climate of recent decades."

Marc Mauer, executive director of the Sentencing Project, which advocates alternatives to incarceration, said hard financial times are doing what politics could not.

"Many political leaders who weren't comfortable enough, politically, to do it before can now -- under the guise of fiscal responsibility -- implement programs and policies that would be win-win situations, saving money and improving corrections," Mauer said.

This story comes on the heels of an earlier AP article about proposed layoffs in the Louisiana Department of Corrections.

Corrections Secretary Jimmy LeBlanc did not mention anything about cutting costs by reducing the number of inmates but that would have to be legislative decision.

Perhaps it was always inevitable that cuts in housing prisoners would have to be made.

Several years ago, in a Town Talk article, local sheriffs and Corrections officials said about 85 percent of the state's incarcerated population had drug or mental problems. There has been nothing reported since to alter that assessment.

Why, then, is the country just now getting around to talking about cutting criminal justice costs by reducing the prison population?

As Mauer said, the states have finally reached a point fiscally where leaders must choose between costly prisons and less expensive alternatives.

Was the delay about fear of politically powerful groups such as Mothers Against Drunk Drivers?

That group and others successfully pushed for mandatory sentences for selected crimes, driving the number of prison inmates higher.

When The Town Talk story was published, it was noted that the cost of keeping one prisoner locked up was $18,000 per year, and the cost went to more than $30,000 annually when expenses for prison construction were added.

Will Louisiana join the other states in considering ways to reduce the prison population, possibly providing less expensive drug and psychiatric treatment rather than incarceration?

Gov. Bobby Jindal has said Louisiana is not facing the economic crisis to the extent that the rest of the nation is suffering.

Will he wait until the state is in a worse fiscal crisis before considering a practical means for cutting expenses?

http://www.thetowntalk.com/article/20090114/NEWS01/901140326