Safety Is Issue as Budget Cuts Free Prisoners
By MONICA DAVEY
The New York Times
Published: March 4, 2010
In the rush to save money in grim budgetary times, states nationwide have trimmed their prison populations by expanding parole programs and early releases. But the result - more convicted felons on the streets, not behind bars - has unleashed a backlash, and state officials now find themselves trying to maneuver between saving money and maintaining the public's sense of safety.
In February, lawmakers in Oregon temporarily suspended a program they had expanded last year to let prisoners, for good behavior, shorten their sentences (and to save $6 million) after an anticrime group aired radio advertisements portraying the outcomes in alarming tones. "A woman's asleep in her own apartment," a narrator said. "Suddenly, she's attacked by a registered sex offender and convicted burglar."
