Rising Cost of Incarceration Alarms South Dakota Officials
- Public Safety Performance Project
- Source: The Argus Leader
- July 18, 2012
Correction: The cost of the increased prison population would be $224 million over 10 years. The time period was wrong in the original version of this story.
A South Dakota committee will examine rising prison costs and the state’s exceptionally high lockup rate in an effort to reform the criminal justice system and save money.
“This is not about being hard or soft on crime. This is about being smart on crime,” Gov. Dennis Daugaard said Wednesday from Pierre.
***
Daugaard spoke in a news conference from the Capitol in which he announced an 18-member panel he is calling the Criminal Justice Initiative work group. The group includes six legislators from both parties, three judges and others from the legal system or the governor’s office. They met Wednesday morning for the first time. They will reconvene monthly to produce policy recommendations by November that Daugaard can take to the Legislature in January. The group is working with the Pew Center on the States, a Washington, D.C., organization that analyzes state government issues.
Read the full article at argusleader.com.
- Projects:
- Public Safety Performance Project
- States:
- South Dakota
Related Resources
-
- Press Release
- Public Safety Performance Project
Pew and Casey Applaud Georgia Leaders for Comprehensive Juvenile Justice Reform
Georgia Governor Nathan Deal signed into law today comprehensive legislation that will improve the state’s juvenile justice system by reducing youth recidivism rates and cutting costs to taxpayers. more
-
- Project Update
- Public Safety Performance Project
U.S. Prison Count Continues to Drop
After nearly four decades of explosive growth, the U.S. prison population declined for two years in a row, according to the Justice Department. Inmate counts fell in about half the states in each year from 2009-10 and 2010-11.
more -
December 4, 2012
State Legislators on Sentencing and Corrections Reforms
Six state legislative leaders reflect on how they successfully enacted comprehensive sentencing and corrections reforms using a bipartisan, interbranch working group and focusing on data and research to craft policies that met their unique challenges. more
-
- Press Release
- Public Safety Performance Project
California Voters Pass Proposition 36 to Reform “Three Strikes” Law
Adam Gelb of The Pew Center on the States released the following statement today after Proposition 36 passed with a large majority of the vote in California. The referendum will modify elements of California's "Three Strikes" Law, which was first approved by the state's voters in 1994. more
-
- Press Release
- Public Safety Performance Project
Pew Praises State Leaders for Justice Reinvestment Bill
The Pew Center on the States released the following statement today regarding Governor Tom Corbett’s signing of House Bill 135. The bill is the second half of the Justice Reinvestment reform package that was enacted through Senate Bill 100 in June (now “Act 122”) to protect public safety, hold offenders accountable and control corrections costs in Pennsylvania.
more