A new report from the D.C.-based Center for Economic and Policy Research says state and local governments could cut about 25 percent of their corrections budgets by lowing their incarceration rates.
In total, the governments could save about $15 billion by putting non-violent offenders on probation or parole, instead of keeping them locked up, according to the nonpartisan think tank’s report.
Non-violent offenders make up more than 60 percent of the prison and jail population. Reducing their incarceration rate by half would yield the projected savings, the report says.
The full report is available as a PDF here.
