Prison oversight bill laudable, poorly executed
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By some accounts, 2021 is shaping up to be: “The year of criminal justice reform.”
Bills are advancing through initial committees with much bipartisan support, including those to improve diversion programs, drug treatment for addicts, re-entry preparation and transition, flexibility for judges to depart from mandatory minimums, reinstating home arrest, expungement of criminal records, and sentencing reforms that would allow some drug offenders to be released at 50% of an imposed sentence, while allowing other non-dangerous offenders to be released after serving 2/3 of their sentence. This bill requires that an offender take only one self-improvement program which doesn’t even have to be targeted at the committing offense behavior.
Report lists economic benefits of early prison release
A report detailing economic benefits of proposed expanded earned release credits gives a look into a possible new middle ground in the debate on revamping Arizona’s prison system.
The report by Rounds Consulting Group analyzed the earned release credits proposal in the 2020 Second Chances, Rehabilitation and Public Safety Act ballot initiative, which didn’t make the ballot in November after it failed to get enough valid petition signatures.
The report found Arizona could save $1.4 billion in the first 10 years after enacting policy that expands earned release credits. The increase in state tax revenues due to the workforce growth resulting from fewer incarcerated people would contribute an additional $107 million, the report said.