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State Should Take a Look at High Cost of Corrections

By standdown

That's the title of an OpEd in today's Houston Chronicle by Marc Levin, director of the Center for Effective Justice.  LINKAs state agencies are asked to prune 2.5 percent of their budgets, lawmakers must take a hard look at Texas? corrections budget during this legislative session. Our state?s prison population has grown from 50,000 in 1990 to more than 157,000 today, while our incarceration rate is the nation?s second highest. Fortunately, this means there are plenty of opportunities for savings. First, Texas incarcerates 20,000 offenders for drug possession. Sixty percent of them have not been convicted of another felony. These nonviolent offenders who simply have a substance abuse problem could be redirected into treatment at a significant savings to taxpayers...continue to full post

Full post as published by StandDown Texas Project on February 24, 2009 (boomark / email).