Prison population continues to rise
Wed, 18 Mar 2009
Summary:
Could something positive come out of our current economic crisis? Believe it or not, the answer is yes.
It seems like our bankrupt state governments are forcing us to take a new approach to our lock-em-up-and-throw-away-the-key attitude we have had toward criminals.
For example, Kansas is closing prisons and “boosting support for offenders on probation and declining to return them to prison for every probation violation.”
Michelle Stephenson, a corrections officer says, “it used to be that it was more about waiting for them to mess up and send them back to prison, in this time and this economy, you can’t afford to keep doing that. There is a better way to do business.”
The new approach brings back the old argument between the lock-em-up-crowd and those who believe in a softer approach with programs geared to change behavior.
[Posted By shades]
Wed, 18 Mar 2009
Summary:
Could something positive come out of our current economic crisis? Believe it or not, the answer is yes.
It seems like our bankrupt state governments are forcing us to take a new approach to our lock-em-up-and-throw-away-the-key attitude we have had toward criminals.
For example, Kansas is closing prisons and “boosting support for offenders on probation and declining to return them to prison for every probation violation.”
Michelle Stephenson, a corrections officer says, “it used to be that it was more about waiting for them to mess up and send them back to prison, in this time and this economy, you can’t afford to keep doing that. There is a better way to do business.”
The new approach brings back the old argument between the lock-em-up-crowd and those who believe in a softer approach with programs geared to change behavior.
[Posted By shades]