Unlocking America

[Joanne98]

The JFA Institute - which “works in partnership with federal, state, and local government agencies, and philanthropic foundations to evaluate criminal justice practices and design research-based policy solutions” - will release a report next week Monday (19 November, at the National Press Club), which calls for significant reductions in US prison populations.

The report, titled “Unlocking America: Why and How to Reduce America’s Prison Population,” is co-authored by nine leading criminology and penal experts. It “recommends significant reforms to the criminal justice system in order to reduce the prison population. Recommendations include reducing length of stay in prison and eliminating prison time for technical parole and probation violations.”

“Unlocking America: Why and How to Reduce America’s Prison Population” is inspired by… well… the facts: “The number of people serving sentences in state and federal prisons in the U.S. has grown from 196,000 in 1972 to more than 1.4 million today, with 2.2 million Americans in prison or jail on any given day.” Sadly, “the number continues to rise and shows no signs of leveling off, costing the country billions in prison operations and construction costs.”

It is therefore that the co-authors decided to come up with an alternative plan: ” The report’s recommendations, if implemented nationally, would gradually and safely reduce the nation’s prison and jail populations by half and generate annual savings of $20 billion, money that could be reinvested in more promising crime-prevention strategies.

http://mvdg.wordpress.com/2007/11/15/major-report-calls-for-significant-reductions-in-us-prison-population/

http://www.jfa-associates.com/

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7102054.stm

[David Dunham]

1. Violent criminals should be locked away, lessen drug possession sentences

Experience in NY shows that violent crime does go down a lot when violent, recidivist criminals are locked away in prison. The policy of keeping them in jail should not change.

[flashl]

5. We can't lock * or Cheney away. What should we do? n/t

[stellanoir]

2. With the cost of imprisoning someone per annum ranging from

30 to 100 grand depending on the state, it's totally nutz to lock up non violent offenders (especially all the totally docile pot heads.)

With the technology available nowadays, and surveillance everywhere, it's got to be far cheaper to restrict the addicts and non violent people to home confinement.

Alas prisoners are seen as a commodity off which the largely privatized prison system makes big bucks.

But Scooter got to skate.

The system is so broken.

e-gads

[Demeter]

3. Let's Start With Airline Passengers, Drivers, Unions

Hell, we've got a whole nation to free, and a whole political party to incarcerate.

[Joanne98]

4. KICK!