Prisons Feeling Economic Crunch

The International Herald Tribune is reporting on the latest casualty of the financial crisis - the prison system.  For decades, prison populations have been increasing, in large part due to minimum sentencing requirements, 3-strike laws, and harsh sentencing for non-violent drug offenders.  Instead of focusing on prison reform, the solution to the problem of over-crowded prisons was simply building more prisons or contracting with private prisons.  However, as counties and states are watching their budgets shrink and are feeling the money crunch,... Read more