Sunday, January 18, 2009

Cutting costs means cutting prisoners Alabama MONTGOMERY - State prisons aren't likely to receive a budget increase for the next budget year, so state prison Commissioner Richard Allen said Thursday he saw no reason Thursday to mention a dollar figure during legislative budget hearings. [...] For the new fiscal year, Allen said his agency will focus on how to "dampen down" the number of new inmates. Those programs will center on sentencing reform, community corrections, new goals for pardons and paroles and a supervised re-entry program. "The Sentencing Commission's job is looking at new bills and telling legislators what the impact is going to be" on the Department of Corrections, he said. "Sentencing reform requires them to consider alternate means of sentence. Those are very very important." In the past, legislators have passed laws for tougher sentences and adding new crimes as if there was no cost. This is a good sign that those days may be ending. 11:45:25 PM | drug policy | Related  | permalink | comment []

Just for fun There were some significant unintended consequences to legalizing pot... [Thanks, Sean] 12:12:36 AM | drug policy | Related  | permalink | comment []