Program Redesign: From Prisons to Interventions
Is there evidence that by shifting more criminal proceedings to community-based interventions, Minnesota could actually have safer communities, stop the growth in prisons, and save $300 million a biennium within eight years?
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Good initiative to decrease the cost of prisons and have more resources for communities. My suggestion is to look instead at the reason(s) that we are spending so much money on prisons. Why are people being imprisoned. Also, what is the purpose of prisons? For instance a recent book "The Spirit Level--why greater equality makes societies stronger"
http://www.amazon.com/Spirit-Level-Equality-Societies-Stronger/dp/1608190366
indicates that reducing the inequality in incomes between citizens leads to significant impovement in the quality of life including less violence and crime and prison sentences.
My main theme is that focusing on reducing the causes of imprisonment will significantly reduce expenses and probably improve sociciety's quality of life.