Overcrowding

Many states have responded to budgetary pressures and the failure of tough-on-crime policies by implementing sensible reforms. But others struggle with crowding and mounting costs. Justice Strategies has worked with policymakers and advocates in several states to pinpoint the causes of prison population growth and craft policy responses that reduce costs while improving public safety.
JS Publication April 1, 2008

Diversion Works: How Connecticut Can Downsize Prisons, Improve Public Safety and Save Money with a Comprehensive Mental Health and Substance Abuse Approach

This report, prepared by Judy Greene and Russ Immarigeon, Justice Strategies consultant and editor of various national criminal justice publications, presents information about the incarceration of mentally ill people, many with co-occurring substance abuse problems. It identifies effective program models that could be used to ease the Connecticut’s prison population pressures and reverse its growth trend.

JS Publication October 31, 2005

Alabama Prison Crisis

Justice Strategies researchers find that nonviolent drug offenses drive explosive prison population growth

Alabama's prisons are dangerously overcrowded and disastrously under-funded. Facilities designed for 13,500 prisoners hold more than 27,000, and Alabama's largest prisons are crammed to three times their design capacity. State corrections officials struggle daily to manage a system characterized by the nation's lowest per-prisoner expenditures and highest ratio of prisoners to guards, along with a death rate that far exceeds the norm. Read more »

News Article May 12, 2004

Arizona lawmakers join call for sentencing reform

Respected Republican Rep. Bill Konopnicki (R – Stafford) and Sen. Carolyn Allen (R – Scottsdale) welcomed the release of a report blaming the growth in incarceration on Arizona’s rigid mandatory sentencing laws, and they pledged to support legislation establishing a sentencing commission to study the matter. Read more »

JS Publication May 11, 2004

Arizona Prison Crisis: A Call for Smart On Crime Solutions

With the ninth highest rate of incarceration in the nation, Arizona has become the incarceration capital of the western United States. The rate of prison population growth in 2002 was twice the regional average and the state incarcerates women, Latinos and African Americans at higher rates than its neighbors. Justice Strategies analysts found that mandatory sentencing laws are fueling overcrowding in the state by filling prisons with substance abusers.

Mandatory sentencing laws fuel overcrowding, fill prisons with substance abusers Read more »

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