Downsizing Prisons
Toledo Blade | July 13, 2015
“Get-tough policies such as three-strikes laws, most of which took effect in the 1980s, have more than quadrupled the nation’s prison population in the past 40 years. Ohio’s prisons held fewer than 8,000 inmates in 1974, compared to more than 50,000 last year. The race to incarcerate has cost states billions of dollars that could have gone to education, roads, and other needs.
Most states, including Ohio and Michigan, could safely reduce their ballooning prison systems by at least 20 percent and save tens or hundreds of millions of dollars. Last month, a widely respected non-profit, nonpartisan advocacy group — the Citizens Alliance on Prisons and Public Spending (CAPPS) — showed how to do it in Michigan.”