WASHINGTON, May 5 (UPI) -- U.S. states faced with economic crises have a choice between funding prison expansion or funding rehabilitation programs, officials say.
Some liberal policy makers in the criminal justice arena say putting nonviolent criminals into rehabilitation systems benefits society more than mandatory minimum prison sentences but the paradigm shift in state policy has more to do with money than justice reforms, The Washington Post said Monday.
"It's the fiscal stuff that's driving it," said Marc Mauer with the Sentencing Project, which favors justice reform.
The Post said state prison budgets rose 127 percent between 1987 and 2007 while higher education expenses went up by 21 percent.
Faced with a budget crunch, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said freeing about 22,000 nonviolent criminals 20 months early would save around $1.1 billion over two years. Early release programs in Rhode Island could save the state $8 billion over five years and lawmakers in Kentucky say house arrests could save at least $30 million, the Post said.
"Do you want to build prisons or do you want to build colleges? If you're a governor, it's kind of come to that choice right now," Mauer told the newspaper.
