Saving money for a rainy day? by Barbora Misakova

In the times of the biggest world crisis, money must be saved, no matter what. So United States decided to reduce state prison numbers just to curtail corrections costs. While in 23 states such as Indiana or Pennsylvania increased the number of prisoners in the last year, there is still more states (exactly 27) that reduced their prison populations. California with a drop of 4,257 is on the top of the list. Michigan, New York, Maryland, Texas and Mississippi are on the list as well. The biggest drop in last year touched Rhode Island, where 9.2 percent of prison population was released. Law enables prisoners to get out early if they commit to rehabilitation programs such as ! job training and substance abuse treatment. Californian new law in try to ease prison overcrowding enabled inmates to reduce their sentences under good conduct. Michigan on the other side released those inmates who serve more than their minimum sentence. The law of more states also tries to prevent parolees to re-entry the prison. California and Michigan together reduced their prison population by more than 7,500 last year, what is the first nationwide decline since 1972. Even though the overall drop represents just 0.4 percent, the fact is there are more than 7,000 released convicts. Adam Gelb, director of the Pew Center’s Public Safety Performance Project said: “There’s now a realization on both sides of the aisle that there are research-based strategies to protect public safety and hold offenders accountable without sinking ever more public dollars into prisons.” But how will it be actually done, he didn’t say.

related story (! sgx16776): http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100317/ap_on_re_us/us_fewer_inm...

by Barbora Misakova for Cantell TV (http://cantell.tv)

Cantell TV is the fastest growing provider of digital broadcasting coupled with telecommunications, allowing people to easily control, view, upload and share digital content through proprietary interface coupled with free phone calls. Cantell TV is committed to delivering infinite choices to your world of entertainment at the tip of your fingers.