Prison population to drop for the first time since 1972

Prison population to drop for the first time since 1972

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The United States may soon see its prison population drop for the first time in almost four decades, a milestone in a nation that locks up more people than any other.

States also are looking at ways to keep people from ever entering prison. A nationwide system of drug courts takes first-time felony offenders caught with less than a gram of illegal drugs and sets up a monitoring team to help with case management and therapy.

Studies have touted significant savings with drug courts, saying they cost 10 percent to 30 percent less than it costs to send someone to prison.

"I don't think

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I view this as a very positive trend. Certainly hardened criminals serve far too little and I am not a friend of parole at all. That being said, it would appear that some of the programs they are deploying early on, especially with low end drug offenders are working and that is certainly a good thing. One of the most foolish things we do in this country is take a decent kid who is caught with a small amount of drugs and send him to prison, only to get raped, demoralized and dehumanized. Take a decent, perhaps misguided kid and turn him into an animal that will be in the criminal justice system for the balance of his/her life.

Finally, a bit of good news

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WOW! Who would have though we might actually be moving forward?!

Pity it took a global recession to force this.

What a stupid waste of time and money putting low level drug users in prison.

We are losing the war on drugs for god's sake, stop doing the wrong thing but trying harder, time to change the approach.

Get the real crimminals. The ones inflicting real harm upon others.

Maybe the prison population has dropped because we are letting them out due to over population. lol

I think it'd be better if they actually started some reform on sentencing and such. For one thing, let the punishment actually fit the crime, and also let the time people serve be their time, not the rest of their life.

I'm sure many peopel saw the recent news article about some kid in texas.. fo rcausing 7000 worth of damage 'tagging' buildings... he copped 8 years, no parole.

8 years.. and because some judge wants to get re elected for being 'tough on crime'.. yet we live in a system where at any given time we're guilty of some crime or another.