January 28, 2014
The Urban Institute has issued a positive report on seventeen states that have adopted the “Justice Reinvestment Initiative”and issued the following statement,
“Seventeen Justice Reinvestment Initiative states are projected to save as much as $4.6 billion through reforms that increase the efficiency of their criminal justice systems. Eight states that had JRI policies in effect for at least one year – Arkansas, Hawaii, Louisiana, Kentucky, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio, and South Carolina – reduced their prison populations. Through the Initiative, states receive federal dollars to assess and improve their criminal justice systems while enhancing public safety. This report chronicles 17 states as they enacted comprehensive criminal justice reforms relying on bipartisan and interbranch collaboration. The studynotes common factors that drove prison growth and costs and documents how each state responded with targeted policies.”
The Justice Reinvestment Initiative State Assessment Report was written by Nancy La Vigne, the project’s principal investigator, along with a team of researchers from the Urban Institute (click on image on left for PDF).
[See Justice Reinvestment Initiative”Leads Prison Reform]
