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You tell 'em, Jerry! Cuts to probation would boost prison costs

Check out an article published this morning in USA Today, subtitled, "Cuts in probation and parole programs to reconcile state budget deficits could undermine recent successes in shrinking bloated prison populations, criminal justice officials say." The thesis, which will be familiar to Grits readers: Cuts in probation and parole programming threaten to boost prison populations which is much more expensive and often, for low-risk offenders, less effective. They could be/are talking abut us. Indeed, Texas' example closes out the article:Among the most closely-watched budget battles, Gelb says, will be in Texas, as the state tries to close a deficit of up to $27 billion.Republican state Rep. Jerry Madden of Plano says cuts would threaten some of the $240 million in treatment programs for some offenders who, without those programs, would have been ordered to prison...continue to full post

Full post as published by Grits for Breakfast on February 09, 2011 (boomark / email).