Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Right Hand, This Is Left Hand

NV passes legislation to get people to parole faster to permit lessening of prison bedspace problems . . . only the Parole Board stipulates treatment conditions that the state doesn’t have the facilities to meet so those guys don’t get out.

WY commits major resources to get meth use down (successfully for now) . . . but coke and prescription drug use are rising.

ME tries to grapple with problems with overcrowding and jail funding . . . but increases misdemeanor penalties to prohibit probation as the alternative so, surprise, the prison pop’s been going up there.

UT wants to bring violent inmates back from jails into state prisons after some disastrous mistakes . . . but that may mean release of lesser offending inmates because bedspace expected to be available by now has been slowed down by contractor problems.

WI did away with parole and instituted an “extended supervision” penalty to be served after incarceration, believing that the incarceration time and “truth in sentencing” were the major concerns . . . but revocations off the extended supervision and resentencings have placed new strains on an overburdened system that, frankly, are just beginning to be felt.

And CA . . . well, it has more hands than anybody, all strangers, needing to meet and know what the others are doing.

Just some of the little things that don’t usually get into consideration when grand schemes and plans are considered at the top of policymaking but that somehow always seem to turn up.

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