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