With Cash Tight, States Reassess Long Jail Terms (drug treatment/less time

[papau]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=68&ncid=716&e=17&u=/nyt/20031110/ts_nyt/withcashtightstatesreassesslongjailterms

With Cash Tight, States Reassess Long Jail Terms
By FOX BUTTERFIELD The New York Times
OLYMPIA, Wash., Nov. 6 After two decades of passing ever tougher sentencing laws and prompting a prison building boom, state legislatures facing budget crises are beginning to rethink their costly approaches to crime.

In the past year, about 25 states have passed laws eliminating some of the lengthy mandatory minimum sentences so popular in the 1980's and 1990's, restoring early release for parole and offering treatment instead of incarceration for some drug offenders. In the process, politicians across the political spectrum say they are discovering a new motto. Instead of being tough on crime, it is more effective to be smart on crime.

In Washington, the first state in the country to pass a stringent "three strikes" law by popular initiative a decade ago, a bipartisan group of legislators passed several laws this year reversing some of their more punitive statutes.

One law shortened sentences for drug offenders and set up money for drug treatment. Another increased the time inmates convicted of drug and property crimes could earn to get out of prison early. Another eliminated parole supervision for low-risk inmates after their release. <snip>

[Mel]

1. Good

but isn't it disgusting that it's all about money not about what's just for citizens?

I don't see them all that concerned about restoring voting rights or funding for education. If one has a felony one isn't eligible for any federal funding for college.

I don't see this as legislatures trying to seriously address the failed drug war.
It's a start but I think these people need to go further.

[Don_G]

2. The States Are Starting To Cut Everything

At the expense of the citizens. My city has cut back garbage collection from bi-weekly to once a week, a school district in my state has changed to a four-day school week and the Baltimore Zoo has had to "lay" off 400 animals plus 20 people.

I don't think the general attitudes have changed but the fact is that ShrubCo has stolen and squandered so much that the nation as a whole has to cut back spending everywhere.

[papau]

4. I wonder why Bush has not asked for emergency aid for drug prisons?

Sometimes it is good that he is all hat and no cattle.

[cosmicdot]

3. with a firm and nervous grip onto my surroundings ...

... I ponder what positive economic-driven New Deal-esque social change, innovations, reform and real leadership another Great Depression might cultivate ...

tragic that it often takes a rude awakening and suffering
in order for society to progress