Report: Reduce Corrections Spending and Reincarceration

The Council of State Governments Justice Center recently released recommendations on lowering crime rates, reincarceration and corrections spending.

The National Summit on Justice Reinvestment and Public Safety focuses on providing solutions for a correctional system in crisis.  The U.S. prison and jail population reached a record 2.3 million in 2008.   More than seven million people, or one in every 31 Americans,  are under some form of correctional control, with rates substantially higher in minority populations.  Corrections spending is one of the fastest growing line items in state budgets, second only to medical care.  Despite this, rates of recidivism remain unchanged, with almost 40 percent of released prisoners returning to jail within three years. 

“We must recognize that incarceration alone does not provide the entire solution,” said U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder. “Simply building more prisons will not solve all of our problems.  Any effective and economically sustainable public safety strategy must include investments that will help to reduce recidivism and to address the root causes of crime.”

The Justice Center issued four recommendations to implement cost-effective corrections policies, urging policy makers to focus resources on individuals most likely to reoffend, base corrections investments on thorough correctional program evaluations, ensure quality of probation and parole supervision, and create policies specific to the challenges facing specific communities.

The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights supports the safe and effective reduction of prison populations and, along with the American Civil Liberties Union, Human Rights Watch, and Penal Reform International/the Americas, submitted an amicus brief arguing that the issue of overcrowding in prisons should be considered a human rights abuse.