This week I came across two notable and reader-friendly reports that each focus on developments in one (swing) state and do so in ways that suggest broader ideas and lessons for reformers working in any jurisdiction. Here are links to these reports with some of their introductory text:
From the Urban Institute, "Smart Reforms to Prison Time Served Requirements in Florida":
Florida’s criminal justice policy decisions, including strict time served requirements, have resulted in an unsustainably large prison system. The average length of time served in Florida prisons has risen dramatically in recent decades, far outpacing increases in other states and contributing to the state’s large prison population. Adjusting the state’s inflexible time served requirement is one approach to reducing incarceration that could allow Florida policymakers to save money and invest instead in preventing crime and helping people succeed after coming home from prison. This brief describes the results of an analysis that shows thousands of people in Florida’s prisons could be released at lower time served requirements, and, for the time they would have been in prison, would not be arrested.
From Alliance for Safety and Justice, Americans for Prosperity-Ohio, and The Buckeye Institute, "Building on Ohio’s sentencing changes to keep prison populations in check":
Bipartisan support for criminal justice reforms such as 2011’s Justice Reinvestment Initiative (HB 86), Targeted Community Alternatives to Prison (T-CAP) and probation reforms in the last biannual budget (HB 49), and SB 66 from the last general assembly allowed the state to minimally reduce the prison population and take steps to increase the use of local sentencing options to reduce recidivism and connect people to treatment. These efforts, and reducing the use of confinement for juveniles, have garnered well-earned national attention, helped the state avoid or end costly litigation, and saved hundreds of millions of dollars on new prison construction.
As lawmakers turn their attention to the new legislative session, the General Assembly has an opportunity to build on the success of their recent reforms to ensure Ohioans suffering from addiction have the tools necessary to become contributing members of society while potentially saving the state hundreds of millions of dollars every year.
Right now, Ohio spends $1.8 billion on corrections every year and, despite promises of decreased budgets because of reforms, corrections costs have risen. There are numerous reasons for increased spending including inflation, healthcare costs for an aging prison population, and the Department of Rehabilitation and Correction granting tens of millions of dollars back to local governments. But one of the main reasons is that recent changes in the law have not led to the big reductions in prison populations that were projected because not as many people convicted of low-level felonies are being served locally as intended.
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