Katrina Currie posted on 2/3/2012 9:18:00 AM
Michael, as my blog yesterday explained, the criminal justice system's goal shouldn't be to simply lock up as many people as possible, but also to ensure offenders are rehabilitated before reentering society. PA’s current policies have failed to do this, and more offenders are returning to prison after being released.

Several states have been able to significantly reduce both their crime and imprisonment rates over the past decade, demonstrating that prison populations can be significantly reduced without compromising public safety and improving outcomes.

In Texas, criminal justice reforms eliminated more than $2 billion in costs and contributed to the state’s lowest crime rate since 1973. See: http://www.texaspolicy.com/pdf/2012-11-CEJ-TFRW-PowerPoint-MarcLevin.pdf

Also check out RightOnCrime.com, a coalition focused on correction reforms that save money and reduce crime.

Michael P. Tremoglie posted on 2/3/2012 1:48:00 AM
Not only is it sustainable it is vital. Law enforcement is a Constitutionally mandated function of the government. The current trend that somehow criminal justice and public safety is too costly, is an idea which originated among the leftist anti-incarcerationists and anti-capital punishment movements. Fox Butterfield mentioned this in his infamous 1997 NY Times article. This article found the ideas of prison population increases and crime reduction as contradictory - indicating exactly how ideological this idea is. Moreover the data confirms that releasing criminals from prison to save money results in increases in crime.

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